HOW THE GERMANS DO WITHOUT

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2666, 11 January 1916, Page 6

HOW THE GERMANS DO WITHOUT

* 1 THE MAGIC OF "ERSATZ" SUBSTITUTES FOR SCARCE COMMODITIES Some timo ago the cabled reports from tho war theatres informed us that the Germans wore resorting to chemical foods—eggs, etc., —in lieu ol' tho real article. Miss Charlotte Teller, writing from Berlin to the Now York ''livening Post," describes how tho Germans make shift to do without that which they cannot got by the universal application of "ersatz," which, being interpreted, means "substitute." She says:— "Ersatz" is the word they conjure with here. It is tlio most popular word in Germany. You see it everywhere; you hear it from the lips of the niost scientific men and the most- practical women. It means in plain jiuglish—"substitute"; it means, as well, the latost discoveries in chemical laboratories, in experimental kitchens; the sl'raugost combination of practical alertness and spiritual enthusiasm - it means that the war has hastened instead of hindered the development of resourcechemical, organic, and spiritual—to an extent that seems, when you get detail after detail, unbelievable. livery one knows how the German Government interested itself, in the first weeks of the war, in the question of food supply. Tlie famous "J£rsatz" is potato instead of wheat Hour. It is much whiter than wheat flour —it's pallor does not seem wholesome. But it has solved the flour problem. The "Ersatz" for Butter. 'Now there are appearing from every point oil the German horizon the "Ersatz" for butter, fat, or oil. All schoolboys in country districts are given holidays to gather nuts.. They are to be paid enough to make their work help towards' tho. support of the family. Acorns, beech nuts, maple, and linden seeds—their use has been found to be I manifold in the making of oil and the feeding of cattle. And their import- I ance as part of tho struggle against the starvation policy" of England is impiessed on the children before thoy are sent .out' on the hunt. ' English paper blockade has resulted in welding the civilian population tightly together, of making it feel that it too, is part of tile army. Instead of depressing the people, it has roused their fighting spirit, until to go without; some of the common luxuries of the table in order that thero may be enough for all has become a matter of pride. • The use of marmalade instead of butter, of which America lias already heard, does not mean orange marmalado -tor there are no oranges-it moans plum butter and strawberry and apricot jam, sold by tho pound from bit' pre . serve buckets, or in cans, if you ar o willing to pay more. -They say that Hie German woman, knowing that butter would bo high, has this year put up more fruit as preserves and jani than ever before-m spite of the fact that there are fewer cans aild no rubber bands.to mako the tops secure. Courses are given and articles written, explainine how to keep fruit- from fermenting. An i-rsatz for rubber has been invented ii !?'>) m ~ —expensive ."synthetic rubber, which is not rubber at all; and rubber *madc-over" from small bits of old rubber.

Enthusiasm Over Chocolate. Every sort of "Ersatz" for coffee is on the market, rhe price of good coffee, however, has not gone up, but only that" o the cheaper grades. And chocolate I Anierica we have been warned cinclv °T+ g f Uch chocolat o and, candy. It would do no good to warn' the Germans; they have too great a lovo 1 f ! first P lace ' and > in the second, too firm a belief in its being an _ Ersatz for what they have given up m the way of fine cakes and pastrv Every city block has at least one shop over, to chocolate. Tile war Has. stimulated, as well, the movement toward "tubing" even" Long rows of what at first glance appears to be tooth-paste, are tubes of condensed milk, cueoa-and-milk all ready to have boiling water added, sardine butter, anchovy paste, and heaven knows what. Very soon all one will have to do to prepare a meal, is to squeeze a tube-once, twice, three, or family meS ' accol ' di "S the size of tho tube - S f° tlle cuhefi > or dice, as they are called. You can have lemonade cubes, pink, or natural, tubes of pressed vegetables, of gravies S" s flavol |' rs , and briquettes—tho coke-hke pressed fuel is actually sold sent'to rt" f S aofee n k boxes b ® hw ,t e fr - 01lt ' on 6of t], ese littlo nh ffi glve ? enou S ll leat to warm w + rt Ca vc ?etables, which are qualities!" 3 army 1U SUCh eMrmous ~3;'°' K not scarce, "but it must bo used for its by-products, each one of which is «n "Ersatz," Everyone here has laughed over tho changing smell of • al >l :<)S V. Particularly of the taxis. For pleasure riding the private < automobile is no longer allowed A man may go to business in his mo- £ >r ' W)f< ? ma y not go calling in it. Iho different aroma in the wake of an automobile is due to the use of benzol or wood alcohol instead of gasoline. Benzol is made out of coke and petroleum; petroleum is oil the list of things which England hoped to starve Germany out of. But the "Ersatz" was soon found and made use of. One of the biggest laughs" in a war comedy now on is_ when a near-sighted woman says sue is no longer afraid of being run °w-she can smell the motors a mile off. The gasoline and benzine used in cleaning establishments have also been replaced. But petroloum is needed for lamps. What wa6 to supply its place? Candles were not practical, because candle grease and candle wax wore called on to be themselves substituted for oils and other ilhiminants kept out of Germany. They have solved the difficulty by increasing the use of electricity m private houses. Electricity has long been in use for public lighting oven in tho smallest towns. One often catches glimpses of shining electric bulbs in some of tho oldest and quaintest cottages, and even sees the barnyards well lighted. The making of electricity general, even in peasant homes, was no great step.

Simple Fireless Cooker. The substitute for fuel in the kitchen is the fireless cooker. All the war cook books tell the "H&usfrau" how to make one. If you can buy one, or havo it made out of wood, well and good. But if that is beyond the purse, there are always newspapers. Directions are simple: Take twelve newspapers: wrinkle and crush them together until they lose their stiffness, and stitch them together as if they were cotton wadding; make a cloth cover and put buckles on, such as we use on arctics; make a round cap-like top and bottom out of the same materials; and put tile covered pot into this, after it has been on the fire the necessary length of time, fivo minutes boiling, ten, or twenty. There is a "Housewives' League," now about a month old, which was organised for the purpose of teaching the German women throughout the Empire what to do with the resources at hand. Just as the war cook book of last year is being used to-day in England, so no doubt the practical experiments carried on by those women at their headquarters in Berlin will trfcltto across the Ckwrnal pjj/1 Mjs out tha Efl&lish WQ-.

mail, who is sulfeiing, not from a lack of any particular articles, but from a rise in the general prices. All "JSrsilta" for fuel lor warming the roonia is good bed coverings. Cotton. wadding is not being brought into Germany now. And the supply of old and new •'comforters" has gone to the front, to the lazarets and rest homes fcr the so.'dicrs. JJut th'e German's devotion to his newspaper is having its toward. The/ are wrinkled and crushed until all tho still'uess is out ol' them, and then stitched and enclosed in coarse or liuo covers as the occasion demands, for covering. Tho oxtra-k.rgo blown bcd-quilts tliat 1 saw hanging over a chair interested U'O. 1 asked what they were for. Tho woman who was showing me about this exhibit of substitutes lowered her voico. "Those are all for tho liussian prisoners," sho said. "You see, tlie'v liavo to bo burned after they are use'd." Then sho showed me small military pillows, of almost no weight, whose tilling was made out of newspapers cut mfco threadlike strips. Tliev cost so little that they can be lost or thrown away without a pang, except- for the comfort that they have given to tired heads in the trenches, or on tho open ground. Where Paper is King. Tho use of strong fibrous paper for chest-warmers, shoc-insoles, tablc-eloths was not so striking as the use of waterproof paper, with a soft cottonv cellulose lining. This cellulose-stuff'is used in place of cotton sheets on sick beds is so cheap that its use costs less than the soap to wash tho bed-sheets; it can be mado antiseptic, and. so used to' take tile place of surgeon's cotton. I-Ins particular "Ersatz" is not likely to make the American cotton-growers' heart leap with joy, since it is likely to compete from now oil with all sorts of cotton products, having been brought to peifection since the war began, and being put very successfully on the market.

But tt is in til© kitchen that the need of oil and fat and wheat flour and a thousand and one luxurious ingredients is most felt. And the return is, perforce,, to the "simple life." The "Ersatz" for kitchen soap, for example (which costs three times what it used to) is soda! In tho drug stores the "Ersatz"' is everyuhoic. Aou can't get glycerine soap, or cold cream, or brilliantine for the hair, but you find substitutes. Camphor mothballs are a luxury, but you can get balsam insect powder, winch is much more fragrant, and "moth root, ' winch is just as effective. Lists aro published from timo to time telling you what is being used, and you use it. {science and tho "Woman's National bervico League—a federation of all the women s clubs and organisations of Germany,organised when tho war broke out—have forestalled the cook's consternation by turning every kitchen into an experimental laboratory. All the women's magazines, the "women's pages m tho newspapers,, are stimulatmg. housewives and cooks to try the results of the scientific studies of learned men. Courses are being given all over the city of Berlin and in hundreds of other cities, to show women how to use tho new products that aro being put on the market—such as tapioca meal and chestnut flour, and hoiv to cook without oil and butter and cream, j Courses are rot restricted to cooking, iho dearth of plumbers and gasfitters has led to such iuconvcnienco that the women aro taking courses in soldering, in how to mako electric bells ring, in cleaning gas burners, and oven in plumb"JS; J-he teachers come from tho ranks of those who have had their training in domestic science—and tho work islargely organised by the Women's National Service League. Suoh study and pieparation is likely to be carricd' over c"'" 0 E? aco ,^' mo (which seems now so tar off). And a two or three years' course is to be demanded, if certain women have their way, as an "Ersatz" tor military service. "What with women a* the "Ersatz" for men, and chemists tho "Ersatz" for cooks, and sunflower seed oil the "Erfi ats! <m 0r and newspapers tho iLrsatz for almost everything it does not seem likely tliat our American trade warning ''Accept'no substitutes," is to be held in reverence from this timo iorth. Even the substitute fcr a substitute is not without honour to-day inside what the Germans call "the iron ring of their enemies. And I am willing to "wager that, if tli© time ever came mi i }. ey wouid havo 10 loolc for an Ersatz for courage—*they would find ?/ le vll world would' never know tho difference.