better-class
districts, with the result that many small shopkeepers have been
driven out of business. In parts of Lothringerstrasse a quarter of
the shops were vacant, in other parts one-half. The bakers' shops
are nearly empty except at morning and evening. In fact, after my
long sojourn in blockaded Germany I still find myself after two
months in England staring in amazement at the well-stocked shop
windows of every description.

Shortly before noon I reached the _Zentral Viehund-Schlachthof (the
slaughter-houses). Through a great gateway poured women and
children, each carrying some sort of a tin or dish full of stew.
Some of the children were scarcely beyond the age of babyhood, and
their faces showed unmistakable traces of toil. The poor little
things drudged hard enough in peace time, and in war they are
merely part of the big machine.

The diminishing supply of cattle and pigs for killing has afforded
an opportunity to convert a section of the slaughter-houses into
one of the great People's Kitchens. Few eat there, however. Just
before noon and at noon the people come in thousands for the stew,
which costs forty pfennigs (about 5 pence) a quart, and a quart is
supposed to be enough for a meal and a half.

I have been in the great Schlachthof kitchen, where I have eaten
the stew, and I have nothing but praise for the work being done.
This kitchen, like the others I have visited, is the last word in
neatness. The labour-saving devices, such as electric
potato-parers, are of the most modern type. In fact, the war is
increasing the demand for labour-saving machinery in Germany to at
least as great an extent as high wages have caused such a demand in
America. Among the women who prepare the food and wait upon the
people there is a noticeable spirit of co-operation and a pride in
the part they are playing to help the Fatherland _durchhalten_
(hold out). Should any of the stew remain unsold it is taken by a
well-known restaurant in the Potsdamer Platz, which has a contract
with the municipal authorities. Little was wasted in Germany
before the war; nothing, absolutely nothing, is wasted to-day.

As at the central slaughter-house, so in other districts the poor
are served in thousands with standard stew. The immense Alexander
Market has been cleared of its booths and tables and serves more
than 30,000 people. One director of this work told me that the
Berlin authorities would supply nearly 400,000 pe