VERBOTEN.

A Street in Ruhleben, the English Prison Camp.

Every prisoner is allowed to write four postcards and two letters each month, and these letters are censored. All prisoners except the Russians receive many packages from their homes. In the Stuttgart camp, where the soldiers are mostly English and French, the twenty-four hundred prisoners receive on an average seventeen thousand packages eachmonth. Every package is censored. No alcoholic drinks are allowed to be sent, and also no cartoons that would be offensive to the Germans.

Russian Prisoners Receiving Bread.

The English and French prisoners receive spending money from their families, and most of them are never without spending money for tobacco and beer. It goes much harder with the Russians whose families are too poor to send anything. That is one reason why the Russian prisoners are anxious to work.

Most of the Russian prisoners are employed in carrying the ashes out of the apartment houses, and the big burly fellows lift the great iron cans as though they were made of paper. These men are quite free, and they run their wagons without a guard. They are very well behaved, attending strictly to their own business and speaking to no one. It isverbotenfor the German people to speak to them, so of course they do not do it. The working Russian prisoners wear their soldier uniform, a brown coat, brown corduroy trousers and a brown cap with a green band. They have a black stripe sewed around their sleeve. This shows they are prisoners.

A Canteen in the Zossen Camp.

Last fall many of the prisoners were employed in cutting down trees in theGrunewald. A guard was always stationed near them. I was walking one day with a German who spoke Polish, when we came upon a group of prisoners. The German asked the Russians in Polish how they liked Berlin."Sehr gut, aber—" (very good, but—) one of the fellows answered. Just then a German guard came from the top of the hill, and he told us to move on. In Germany, every time anything became truly interesting I was told to move on.

French Prisoners Gathering Wood.

A great many Russians work on the railroad tracks, and still others are employed in factories, gardening and working in the fields. Those that work in the factories are not employed in the explosive departments but are engaged in lifting heavy bars of metal and shells. In these factories the men are closely guarded, but the average Russian is very docile and easy to manage.

Very few English prisoners do any work, but many French prisoners are employed in factories and in the fields. They still wear their bright red trousers. In Dresden I saw a lot of these red-trouseredfellows running around the streets loose. One prisoner had a little German child with him. She was a little girl of about four years of age, and she clung to his hand and seemed very fond of him.

Russian Prisoners Before Entering the Louse Disinfecting Place.

Russian Prisoners Coming Out of the Louse Disinfecting Place.

At Circus Busch last winter a great spectacular play was produced and as five hundred supers were needed for the show, men were taken from the prison camps to take part. There were English, French, Arabs and Turcos, all dressed in their own uniforms, but some of the prisoners had to take the part of German soldiers. They were dressed in the regular German uniform and they looked rather sheepish. Of course in the play the Germans won all of the battles, but there was a waiting list of prisoners who wanted jobs in the show. They were paid one mark a night. The theater management was responsible for the safety of the prisoners, and the theater was well guarded.

Two of the most interesting camps in Germany are the two near Berlin, the one at Zossen and that for the English at Ruhleben. The camp at Zossen is about an hour's ride from Berlin and can be seen from the train window on the way to Dresden. It is built in the open country and is a town of small houses. They have all kinds of prisoners here.

The "Gentlemen's Camp" at Ruhleben is where the English civil prisoners are interned, and some very rich and influential men are here. Ruhleben is built on a race track, and though at first it had only a few buildings, it is now a small town. It hasits main streets, its shops, its restaurants, its reading rooms, its select circle and its four hundred. It had a theater, the director of which was the director of one of the Berlin theaters before the war.

French Prisoners Going into the City to Make Purchases.

They have a newspaper printed in Ruhleben. The German authorities do not allow these papers to be sent out of the camp, but I was lucky enough to have seen one of them. An English girl I knew in Berlin got one of them from the German wife of a Ruhleben prisoner. I had to swear that while I was in Germany I would never tell I had seen it. It was a very neat little sheet with stories, poems and advertisements—no news. The advertisements were for the different shops and stores in Ruhleben. Some of the men interned there carry on trades,and I saw advertisements for printing, clothes-pressing and tailoring.

At Ruhleben they have what they call their "university," and here they have classes in languages, art and science, and for the colored prisoners they have the common school branches. All these benefits were not gotten up by the Germans, but by the prisoners themselves. The men are allowed to spend only a certain amount of money each month, which keeps down the gambling, but they are allowed to buy what furniture they wish.

Englishmen on Their Way to Ruhleben, November, 1915.

A great cry has been raised against the small amount of food given the prisoners at Ruhleben. I heard from all sides that this was true, and that in winter they have very little coal. But Germany can't give her prisoners much—she can't give evenher own people much. What they have to give the Russian prisoners is a mystery—perhaps just enough to exist on.

A Popular French Prisoner in Germany.

When I was in Germany, an English preacher was invited to come over from England and inspect the Ruhleben camp. He was met at the German frontier by a German officer and escorted direct to Ruhleben. He spent one week in the camp, living the same life the English prisoners live. He was allowed to bring messages to the men and to take messages from the men back to England—censored of course. There were rumors around Berlin about him, but there was nothing in the German papers. I read his report in theLondon Timesafter he got back to England. He said that the men were comfortable and that they had an intellectual life, but he added that the men surely needed the food packagessent from England and that they received the packages sent.

One day the first summer I was in Berlin, I was in Wertheim's department store. I saw a great many people gathered around the sporting-goods counter. When I asked what was the matter I was told that the two men in civilian clothes were Englishmen from Ruhleben, and that they had come to Berlin to buy a tennis racket. They were accompanied by a German sergeant. The Englishmen seemed to be enjoying themselves and they took a long time to select the rackets.

French Prisoners at Work.

This spring they left a number of men out of Ruhleben. These men wanted to work. One day I was standing in my boarding-house hall talking to the landlady, when a fine-looking young man came up and asked for a room. He spoke very good German, but I could see that he was a foreigner.Before she showed him the room he asked what kind of boarders she had, and she said, mostly German officers. "Then there is no use for me to look at the room," he answered, "I am an enemy foreigner, and maybe it would not be pleasant." "Oh, it would be all right," said the eager landlady, "all you would have to do would be to report to the police." "Oh, yes, I know," answered the man, "I amsehr bekannt(well known) to the police. I am an Englishman."

Every prison camp has religious services according to the religion of the prisoners. Prince Max of Saxony likes to preach, and he goes around preaching to the Russian prisoners in Russian. At Wunsdorf and Zossen they have mosques where the Mohammedan prisoners can hold their services.

Some of the officers' camps are at Klausthal and Wildemann in the Harz, at Cologne, and at Mainz. They have much better quarters than the common soldiers. In some cases they have separate rooms, and the meals are better and are served in better style. They are even said to have napkins. The officers never work for the Germans, but I have seen pictures of them knitting and doing fancy work.

The youngest prisoners are some little Russian boys from twelve to fourteen years of age. These children were used as messenger boys to the Russian officers and employed around the camp kitchens. In the camps they are given a lesson in German every day.

In Germany nowadays—

It isverbotento throw rubbish on the side walks and streets.

It isverbotento spit in public places.

It isverbotenfor children and nurse girls to occupy all the benches in the parks. Places must be left for old people.

It isverbotenfor children to play in the halls of apartment houses. There are sand-boxes in the rear for them.

It isverbotenfor you to play your piano in an apartment after ten o'clock at night. Other people might want to sleep.

It isverbotento make any unnecessary noises in an apartment house at any time.

It isverbotento take dogs into restaurants and grocery stores.

It isverbotento beat carpets on any day except Friday or Saturday, and then it is forbidden to start before eight o'clock. People in Germany don't have brooms, they beat their carpets each week.

It isverbotenfor customers to handle fruit onthe market stands. It is also forbidden to handle poultry or game.

It isverbotento sell short weights, and for this the punishment is severe.

It isverbotento put more people in a street car than it can seat.

It isverbotento take dogs into any train coupé except the one marked "For dogs."

It isverbotento put more people in an elevator than it can hold.

It isverbotento employ a man until he is old and then to throw him out and give his place to a younger man.

It isverbotento employ women with very young babies.

Since the war some new things have been added to this list:

It isverbotento eat more food than is your share. There must be enough for all.

It isverbotenfor dealers to raise their prices on the common necessary articles higher than those fixed by the government.

It isverbotento bake cakes and pastry at home. The flour must be saved for bread.

It isverbotento either sell or use cream. Cream is a luxury, butter is a necessity.

It isverbotento dance during the war.

These are only a few rules laid down by the German people for the German people. And they are not only laid down but they are obeyed without question. The power to obey laws shows strength and not weakness, and it is this little wordverbotenthat the world has laughed at so much that is helping Germany to win battles to-day.

For the Germansverbotenmeans not only "forbidden," but it means self-restraint, obedience, and the respect for the rights of others, and it means unity as well,—the unity of working together, of hearing commands given by those above and of heeding those commands.

A German is quite as selfish as a person of any other nation, and he is also quite as greedy, but since the war he is forbidden to be greedy. He has the inclination but he cannot carry it out. He can buy only a certain amount of things each week and that at a price so sternly fixed by the government that a man's store is closed if he charges one cent more than allowed. Also, he is not allowed to refuse to sell things if he has them in stock, and the laws are very strict about selling spoiled things. If a butcher sells you spoiled meat and refuses to take it back you can go to the police with your story. It isverbotento sell bad meat.

The drink question had become a mighty one for all the warring nations, but Germany, the greatest beer-drinking country of the whole world, has quietly settled the question without a fuss, and nowsince the war, the breweries are forbidden to retail more than two-thirds of their output in peace times.

The Germans say thatverbotenis a part of patriotism, for real patriotism consists in not only loving your country but in serving it as well and in having respect for its laws and the rights of other men.

In Germany, when a crowd of Americans got together, we had but two topics of conversation—the food and the mail.

The mail between Germany and America came pretty regularly until February, 1916. Since that time it is only a few straggling letters that have gotten there at all. Even before America went into the war, letters addressed to Germany direct were held, but most people had a Holland or Scandinavian address, and they had their letters relayed to them. But even many of these letters did not get through.

This relaying can still be done through Switzerland but not through Scandinavia, as the Scandinavian boats do not carry mail; and there is no mail service between America and Scandinavia. The relaying of letters is very expensive, and where before the war it cost ten pfennigs to send a letter to America on a German boat, by the relaying it costs fifty pfennigs. The relaying is done in this way. The letter is placed in an open envelope addressed to the person in America. On the outside of thisenvelope one fastens an International Coupon which can be bought in any country. In Germany it costs thirty pfennigs, and it can be exchanged in any country for a five-cent stamp. A second open envelope is placed over the first envelope with the coupon attached. A twenty-pfennig stamp is placed on this second envelope to take the letter out of the country. The relayer takes the coupon and buys a stamp with it in the neutral country where he is and mails the letter. Sometimes these letters reach their destination.

The Growth of the Field Post Mail.

The German censor seldom opens a letter that has already been opened by the English censor, but they open all letters marked Holland or Denmark or Switzerland. Letters sent out of Germany must be mailed open, and it is better to write on one sideof the paper so that if the censor takes it into his head to clip, only one side of the paper is spoiled. If the German censor thinks that a letter is too long he sends it back and tells you to make it shorter.

Until America entered the war, newspapers sent out by newspaper offices to firms in Germany generally got there, but papers sent to private people were usually held up. The American papers were about two months old. I received several letters nine months old. An American I know received two letters in the same mail. One was dated June, 1914, and announced the marriage of a friend of his in Chicago. The second letter was dated July, 1915, and it was a card telling of the birth of a boy to the couple.

On the 1st of February, 1917, it was advertised in all the German newspapers that any one wishing to send mail by theU-Deutschlandcould do so by paying two marks extra postage, and that all the letters should be in the post office by the 15th of February. Many people sent letters. On the 5th of February, America broke off relations with Germany, so the boat did not sail. Along in March all the people who had sent letters received their two marks back with their letter and the information that the boat had not sailed and that there was now no mail service between America and Germany.

The Central Depot for Soldiers' Mail in Hanover.

Before the war Germany had the finest mail system in the world, letters came more quickly, they had more deliveries and not so many letters werelost. Now since so many of the clerks are new and many of them are women, the service is not as efficient as it was. One often loses letters.

The first mail delivery in Germany comes at 7.30 in the morning and the last delivery is at 8 o'clock at night, and there are many more in between. Then they have what they call theirRohrpostletters and these are the special delivery letters, and they are shot through a tube from one post office to another and are delivered by a boy at the other end. Now a good many of the special delivery messengers are women.

Berlin Mail Carriers.

The most extensive mail in Germany is theFeldpostor the soldiers' mail. It does not cost anything to send a letter to a soldier or for a soldier to send a letter to you. All you have to do is to put thewordFeldpostat the top of the letter and it goes free. Even if you know where a soldier is, you do not put the name of the place on the envelope, only his field address which consists of the army corps, the regiment and the company of the soldier.

Mail Wagons on the West Front.

A one-pound package can be sent to the soldiers for twenty pfennigs. Thousands and thousands of packages are sent each day. Just before I left Berlin it was forbidden to send a soldier packages of food, as the soldiers in the field had better rations than the German civilian population. Many soldiers sent their families packages of food. I visited a German family in Dresden in May, 1917, just the month before I left Germany, and every day while I was there they received a package of food from the son who was an officer in Hungary.

In the summer of 1916, the prices of postage stamps were raised in Germany. Letters that had before cost five pfennigs now cost seven and one-half pfennigs, and letters that cost ten pfennigs, now cost fifteen pfennigs. The price was not changed on the letters going out of Germany. Some of the people rather grumbled and said: "It now costs fifteen pfennigs to send a letter from Potsdam to Berlin and only twenty pfennigs to send a letter from Germany to America."

The Package Post in Berlin. Both Men and Women Workers.

It does not take nearly as long for a letter to go to a soldier in France as it takes to go to a soldier in Russia. A letter sometimes comes in one day from the Somme to Berlin, but from Russia a letter takes four or five days at the least.

All the mail that goes to the soldiers on the westfront is first sent to Hanover to a central station. Here the mail is sorted and sent to different stations along the front. From these main stations the mail is sent to different sub-stations. Every day each regiment sends a soldier to its sub-branch for the regiment's mail. Nobody but the soldier and the head of the sub-branch knows where the mail is to go, for each regiment's whereabouts are kept a secret.

In Germany, one evening last winter I heard a German count give a lecture on theAusländerei. He started out by saying that for years the German people had been suffering from a disease calledAusländerei, which means that they have always been too fond of all that is foreign, that they have been ashamed of being Germans, and that they have tried to copy the manner, modes and customs of other nations instead of sticking to their own national ideals.

He went into detail, beginning with the foreign names used all over Germany. He said that instead of a hotel being called by the good old-fashioned German wordHof, the hotel proprietors insisted on using the word "hotel," combined, alas, too often with such words as Bristol, Excelsior, Continental, Esplanade, Carlton, Westminster and Savoy. He thought that much better words would beBerlinerhoforKaiserhof.

He said that until three years ago messenger boys were called by the English name "messengerboys," and he much preferred the new nameBlitzjungewhich means "lightning kid."

He lamented that even now English clothes for men were still being sold in German shops, and that they were quoted as English and were bought because they were English; that German women still follow Paris fashions; but he said with emphasis: "A German heart under a Paris gown is no true German heart." He said that a man who studied in England liked to be styled "an Oxford man" or "a Cambridge man," and that many a German woman who goes to Switzerland each year registers at the fashionable hotels as "Madame Schultz" or "Madame Schmidt" instead of "Frau."

He said further that when an Englishman or an American came to Germany, he fully expected every German he met to know English, but no traveling German expects any one to know German, and the German meekly learns the languages of all the other races.

He ended by saying that he knew that no people had a greater love for their country than the German people have, and that the time had come for them to cease their imitations and to be Germans without foreign ideals, thoughts or customs.

It is said that in Königsberg the military commander there has made it a criminal offense for any one to use or circulate a foreign fashion plate. There are also a small number of people who think that English or French should not be spoken on thestreets during the war, although English and French are still being taught in the schools, and I often saw youngsters studying their English lessons on the trains.

But I have found that the count, the military commander at Königsberg, and the people who want nothing but German spoken on the streets represent only a small portion of the German people; the whole cry of the masses is for peace to come, so that they can have things from the outside world again.

During the two years that I was in Berlin I talked English on the streets nearly all the time, and I was spoken to only twice for talking English. Once I went to Potsdam with an American boy, and we were sitting in the train waiting for it to start. We thought the train was empty, and we were talking English very fast and rather loud. Suddenly a woman in black poked her head around from the next coupé and asked us to stop talking English. "It hurts me," she said, "the English killed my husband."

Another time I was talking to an American lady at the opera, when a pinched-faced German lady turned around in front of us and said, "Don't you know that this is the Royal German Opera House and that we are at war with England?" She thought we were English. We said nothing but commenced to speak German.

A funny thing happened to an American lady Iknew. She was dining with a Turkish officer dressed in civilian clothes. As the Turk knew no German they were talking French. A nervous wounded German officer came in and seated himself at a table near them. As soon as he heard the French he sent the waiter over to tell them to stop. The Turk took his military calling-card out of his pocket and sent it over to the German. The German officer did the only thing there was to do—he came over and apologized.

Once in a while in Berlin we were cut off the telephone when we spoke English. This was a spy precaution, and Central would not connect us again even when we spoke German.

In Cologne a number of dressmakers had a meeting to establish some new styles for Germany. They dug up a lot of fashion plates from the styles fifty years back, and had fashion plates printed from them and model dresses made, and they tried to convince the modern German girl that this was what she should wear. They called the new style theReform-Kleidor "reform dress," but their scheme was not much of a success, for if anything was ever ugly it was this dress. I never saw more than half a dozen of these dresses on the street, but once at a club I saw a number of them. They were made with a narrow skirt and a loose Russian blouse for a waist. They were absolutely shapeless and so were the women that were in them. The dresses were mostly made of flowered silk and very littletrimmed. The hat that went with the reform costume was perfectly plain and fitted down over the head like a pan.

TheReform-Kleidis the butt of many a joke in the German weeklies, and the German girls I know said that they would die before they would wear them. Very wide skirts are the style in Germany, and the government has tried to make women wear narrower ones because of the amount of cloth it takes, but a woman's patriotism ceases where styles are concerned, and they all manage to get the needed cloth for their skirts.

Germany has been cut off from the world so long that her styles are different from the rest of the world. Even the Scandinavian people dress more like Americans. In Germany, very short-vamped, round-toed shoes are the style; you couldn't buy a pair of pointed shoes there. Last summer an American girl came over from the United States, and she had been told beforehand to bring shoes. She brought eleven pairs of pointed ones, and every time she went out the Germans stared at her feet. The German hats sit high from the head, and short sleeves are once more in fashion.

All the German women will be glad when they can have Paris fashions again, and most German men try to dress like Englishmen. They love English tweed and they think that there is nothing like a Burberry coat. Many of the German officers wear a monocle and this is surely English.

One old German fogey wanted to have all the letters on the German typewriters changed to German script. But even at the mention of such a thing the merchants and business men rose up and said they would never have it. Café Piccadilly changed its name to Café Vaterland, but the Russischer Hof is still so called, and the highest order in the German army is still calledPour le mérite.

Of course you hear a lot of talk aboutecht deutschethings, and that now nothing is worth anything unless it is "made in Germany" and is pure German. They call that patriotism, but the far-thinking German realizes that it is theAusländereithat keeps a nation young, and it was that which made Germany what she was before the war. The count said that the Germans were "copy cats"—but was not this one of the cleverest things about the German nation?

Almost every day is tag day in Berlin. You can't poke your head out of the door without a collection-box being shoved at you. Boys and girls work at this eternally. They go through the trains and the cafés and restaurants, not one at a time but in steady streams. You may be walking along a very quiet street and you will see a lady come smiling toward you. Apparently she is empty-handed, but just as she comes up to you, she whisks a box out from behind her muff or newspaper and politely begs a mite.

The Germans give unceasingly to these collections. They put in only ten pfennigs at a time, but I have often watched men and women in the cafés, and they will give to half a dozen youngsters in half an hour. They really prefer to give their charity donations in this way instead of in a large lump. They get more pleasure out of it.

Traveling Soup Kitchen.

The day just before I left Berlin for Copenhagen, I had been pestered about ten times in one square. The collection was called theU-Boot-Spende, and it was a collection for the wives and children of thesailors who had lost their lives on the U-boats. At one corner a boy of about thirteen years stopped me by raising his hat and asking if he dared beg a few pfennigs for theU-Boot-Spende.

The Roland of Brandenburg, Original Statue.

"Now, look here," I said to him, "Why should I give to this? I am afeindliche Ausländerin(an enemy foreigner) and if I give you any money it encourages you Germans to go on sinking American ships. I must save my money for the wives and the children of the men who have lost their lives by the U-boats."

The Iron Roland of Brandenburg.

The boy blushed deeply. "That is true," he said, "I beg your pardon. I feel for those people too. And if you will allow me I would like to donate something for your charity," and the little fellow pulled a mark out of his pocket and handed it to me. I found out afterwards that the boy was the son of one of Germany's richest and most aristocratic princes.

Besides the tag days there are many women who go around selling little picture sheets for ten pfennigs. Countless numbers of these sheets have sprung up since the war. The companies that publishthem make only a small profit and the rest of the money goes to charity.

The Blacksmith of Bochum in Westphalia.

One of the best ways the Germans have of collecting money is the driving of nails into wooden statues and charging so much to each person for being allowed to drive a nail. The "Iron Hindenburg" is the greatest of all these figures, but there are many more even in Berlin. Many cafés have their own figures to nail, sometimes it is only an eagle or an Iron Cross. In Brandenburg they have a wooden copy of their famous old stone statue ofRoland that has stood for centuries in the Brandenburg market place. The stone figure was funny and quaint enough, but the nailed figure looks like some queer product of cubist art.

Nailed Statue. Statue of GermanLandsturmMan at Posen.

Entertaining "Kriegskinder."

TheMittelstandskücheand theVolkskücheare also charitable organizations and are run by women's clubs. These kitchens are places where the middle and lower class people can get a good meal for from fifty to seventy pfennigs,—a meal consisting of soup, meat, potatoes and a vegetable. Compote or stewed fruit can be bought for tenpfennigs a dish, and salad can be bought for the same price. They do not have bread, you must bring that with you. They cut off your food cards for meat and potatoes, but they are not very strict about it. If you were terribly hungry and went to aVolkskücheyou could very likely get somethingto eat without a card. The city sees that these places are well provided for, and often you could not get potatoes in the fashionable restaurants, but the kitchens always had them.

The Iron Hindenburg on the Kaiser's Birthday.

Besides these kitchens, club women have a traveling soup kitchen. It consists of a goulash cannon driven around the streets on a wagon, and the people come with their buckets to get a hot stew for thirty-five pfennigs.

The American Chamber of Commerce had a fine soup kitchen in Berlin. It was opened two winters ago with great pomp, and Mr. and Mrs. Gerard were present at the occasion. Society ladies took turns helping in the kitchen, and they made it a very great success. Everything served in the kitchen was free and the food was splendid. They served many hundred people each day.

In Munich the Americans have a hospital which they conduct themselves. I don't know how it is run since America got into the war, but before this time the Americans paid for everything. Two years ago the American ladies in Dresden had a bazar for the German Red Cross. They made many thousand marks. In Berlin there is a very rich American man who keeps the families of one hundred and fifty German soldiers that have been killed in the war. When America got into the war, it was thought that his charity would end, but he said, "No, these poor women and children cannot help it that America is in the war."

Frau Becker's Children Out for a Walk.

One of the greatest charitable organizations in Berlin is a day nursery run by Frau Hofrat Becker. The nursery is where the working wives of soldiers can leave their babies each day while they are atwork. No children can be left with Frau Becker unless the mother shows a certificate that she works. The children can be left at five o'clock in the morning and they are kept there until night.

Frau Becker has five of these homes located in different parts of Berlin, and I have visited all of them. In each home she has about one hundred and fifty children—little babies from six weeks old up to four years of age. Some of the children seemed very happy but others were pinched looking little things who looked as though the battle of life was too great for them. The babies are given milk and bread for breakfast and at noon a warm stew.

Besides taking care of the babies, Frau Becker gives the older children who go to school a warm noon-day meal, and after school she gives them coffee or bread. Then she provides these larger children with employments and amusements so they will be kept off the streets. The larger girls sew and knit, and the boys learn songs and games. All the helpers are voluntary, and they receive no pay.

Berlin Youngsters Going to a Fresh Air Camp in East Prussia.

Nearly every family in Germany of the better middle class have what they call aKriegskind, or a "war child." They take a boy or girl of some poor family and give them their meals. The family where I visited in Dresden had had a little girl since the beginning of the war. When the war broke out, Hilda was nine years old, and you cannot imagine what a change has taken place in her during the three years. She has now very nice manners,she is very clean and she has learned to sew and play the piano. Hilda is one of a family of eleven children. The father is aLandsturmman in the war, and he makes thirty-eight pfennigs a day.

One of the greatest charity collections is the gold-collection. The Empress started this collection by giving a lot of gold ornaments, and many people have followed her example. The story goes around in Germany—personally I doubt if it is true—that the Crown Princess gave to the collection all the gold plates that King Edward of England had given her for a wedding present, and when the plates were melted down they were all found to be plated.

The word "cripple" is a word that hurts, and in Germany when one speaks of the men who have lost arms, legs, or eyes, they sayKriegsbeschädigte, which means hurt or damaged by the war. It has a softer sound.

Even now, with the war not over, plans have been carried out for these men and many more plans are being made. Skilful doctors and makers of artificial limbs are contriving all sorts of ways to make various kinds of arms and legs that are suited for all kinds of work that a crippled man might wish to do.

For instance, a man who wishes to be a carpenter must have a different kind of a hook on his new hand from that of the man who wishes to be a blacksmith. The man who has lost his arm at the shoulder must have a different hook from the man who has lost his at the elbow.

One-Armed and One-Legged Soldiers Learning Farming.

Crippled German Soldiers Learning to Letter.

All this means much experimenting as there are so many different trades in the world, and the crippled man wishes if possible to follow the sametrade he had before the war. In many cases it is not possible to do this, and there have been mapped out fifty-one new trades at which crippled men can work. The government has established schoolswhere these trades can be learned without any charge to the soldier.

Factory for Making Artificial Limbs in Berlin.

Armless Soldier Learning a New Trade.

One of the most famous of these schools is in Berlin, the Oscar-Helene-Heim. Before the warthis was a hospital for crippled children with a school for them where they could learn trades. Since the war they have made additions to the place, and soldiers can go here to learn a trade. The head of this institution is Professor Biesalski, the man who has invented many of the different kinds of arms and legs. The Biesalski arm is very simple and is made out of nickel, and tools fasten into the holder with screws.

Riding the Bicycle Before Receiving the New Leg.

I went all through this home. They have a carpentry department, a shoe-making department, abasket-weaving department, and a gardening department. There were a number of soldiers here without legs, but the home makes a specialty of helping soldiers without arms, and this is the far more difficult task. I saw some men with both arms gone, and in these sad cases they have implements for holding everything, tools, knives, forks, spoons, cups, cigars and indeed everything that a man would want to hold.

After Receiving the New Leg.

The artificial legs are also most wonderful. One army captain who had lost his leg at the thigh wasable to mount his horse nine weeks after his leg had been amputated, and two weeks later he joined his regiment in the field. Another chap just nineteen years of age and who had lost his leg, enlisted in the aviation squad, and now he is one of the best flyers in the German army.

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