ople before the
end of the winter.

The occasional soldier met in the streets looked shabbier in the
shabby surroundings of the East. The German uniform, which once
evoked unstinted praise, is suffering sadly to-day owing to lack of
raw materials. I was in a Social Democratic district, but the men
in uniform who were home on leave were probably "good" Social
Democrats, since it is notorious that the regular variety are
denied this privilege.

The faces of the soldiers were like the rest of the faces I saw
that day. There was not the least trace of the cheerful, confident
expression of the days when all believed that the Kaiser's armies
would hammer their way to an early peace--"in three months," as
people used to say during the first year and a quarter of the war.
Verdun had been promised them as a certain key to early peace, and
Admiral Scheer was deified as the immortal who tore loose the
British clutch from the German throat. But Verdun and Jutland
faded in succeeding months before the terrible first-hand evidence
that the constant diminution of food made life a struggle day after
day and week after week. The news from Rumania, though good, would
bring them no cheer until it was followed by plenty of food.

In the vicinity of the Schlesischer Bahnhof occurred a trifling
incident which gave me an opportunity to see the inside of a poor
German home that day. A soldier in faded field-grey, home on
leave, asked me for a match. During the conversation which
followed I said that I was an American, but to my surprise he did
not make the usual German reply that the war would have been ended
long ago if it had not been for American ammunition. On the
contrary, he showed an interest in my country, as he had a brother
there, and finally asked me if I would step into his home and
explain a few things to him with the aid of a map.

Though I was in a district of poverty the room I entered was
commendably clean. An old picture of William I. hung on one wall;
opposite was Bismarck. Over the low door was an unframed portrait
of "unser Kaiser," while Hindenburg completed the collection.
Wooden hearts, on which were printed the names Liege, Maubeuge, and
Antwerp, recalled the days when German hearts were light and German
tongues were full of brag.

A girl of ten entered the room. She hated the war because she had
to rush every day at noon from school to the People's Kitchen to
fetch the family stew. In the afternoon