FOR WOMEN FOLK.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 201, 3 February 1915, Page 6

FOR WOMEN FOLK.

"BY EILEEN." 1Y "

'"Eileen " will be glad to receive items of interest and value to women for publication or reference in this column.

GERMAN WOMEN. |' i WHAT THEY ARE THINKING. ; BIG PRICES AND SMALL LOAVES, j IThat the price of food is already high in Germany as to cause severe pri- • vation in working-class homes is proved , by a remarkable article in the German ', women's newspaper, Die Gleichhcit '. (Equality). This newspaper is the or- '. gan of German women Socialists and is exceedingly frank in its criticism of the economic conditions arising in Germany out of the war. It is published at Stuttgart and has a large circulation among women all over Germany. This article, which the Daily Mail has translated, admits franklj tftat the war will be long, that already women are feeling the pinch, and that tile activity of the English fleet has effectually cut off overseas supplies from German markets. The women of Germany are looking forward with anxiety and grave apprehension to the coming winter months. The prices of the most necessary provisions, high enough before the war, have increased notably since the war began. This is especially the case with TJread and grain of all kinds. Bread and potatoes are the chief food of the poorer classes, who cannot afford meat and fresh vegetables very often, and great increases in the cost of bread and potatoes have taken place. Like a child's soap bubble which bursts on pressure, so has the legend been dissipated that the war would be a short "military promenade" to Paris and Pctrograd. We know that we are in the ' midst of a world-war which will last I a very long time, and we must face the fact that Germany for many months to come will remain cut off from commercial intercourse with other nations, and will be compelled to feed her own people from her own reserves. Therefore we women must be as economical as possible, and must husband all existing resources. More than that, we must see to it that these resources are equitably and widely distributed. It does not benefit the farm laborer or ' the small official to tell him cheerfully that the harvest of corn and potatoes is said to have been large enough to feed the Empire until next summer if the price he has to pay for his meals continues to rise to breaking point. The war has robbed many families of their chief support; it has xnaken the economic fabric of the nation to its foundations, and has brought unemployment and low and uncertain earnings to many. Millions of women, children, aged parents, and people in weak health must henceforth rely for their means of existence upon the pittances they receive from public funds and charity. For those who keep house on very little the price of food is the main issue of the war.

HOW PRICES RUSHED UP. Does it not, therefore, seem an incomprehensible and tragic thing that the prices of the most necessary provisions have risen higher and higher during the war which requires from the German people the greatest efforts in blood and strength and resolve? Between 20th July and 2nd August the price of wheat rose ss, and that of rye orer 6s per double hundredweight, and on 20th October the figures were higher still. These are Berlin prices; in the east of Germany the figures are still higher. All these prices run some 7s or 8s higher than the average rates for 1913. No increase in the cost of production justifies this rise. On the contrary, wages—for example, of threshers—are lower than in other years. Nevertheless, these famine prices have to be paid by all classes for bread and flour and grain of all kinds—and we German women have to buy "war bread" of very inferior quality and smaller weight. How much that poor loaf has now to be divided to feed the hungry littlo ones! And what about potatoes,—for so many people the substitute nowadays for bread, and the chief food of so many thousands of families? The newspapers of every political and social creed are full of letters from housekeeping women saying it was and still is impossible to lay in the necessary stock of winter potatoes at even a comparatively accessible price. And yet with its fortyseven million tons this year's potato harvest surpasses even the average crop of the last ten years. Nearly everywhere the markets are short of potatoes. Farmers are holding them back to force higher prices, or arc feeding their cattle with potatoes because there is no barley or maize coming from abroad, and fodder is becoming rapidly dearer. The cattle are fed —the poor man cannot buy food.

MILLIONS IX WANT. ■Millions are in want; millions more trembling before the menace of greater hardships still to come. In the hour of the greatest danger speculators are profiting by the wretchedness of the poor. These facts are officially confirmed by the efforts of municipalities and some military authorities to regulate prices—that is, to fix maximum' prices for the staple articles of food. At last, too, after representations from the newspapers, corporations, trade unions, and so forth, the Imperial Government has taken similar steps, and has issued regulations to fix a maximum price of bread. And we must., of course, accept this. Better something and late than "nothing never." Everybody agrees that the Government measure comes limping far enough behind the rise of prices. The delay has brought about untold suffering. The famine prices of to-day are only becoming normal prices, and as such are quoted to-day in Berlin. Nowhere can wheat be bought under the maximum rate, and we must therefore expect correspondingly higher prices for flour, bread, and all baked things. This is a prospect to make hundreds' upon hundreds of mothers shudder. The maximum prices which have been - fixed by the Government are really the highest prices which have ever been reached during the last decade; not even in ! lean years were they exceeded. The Frankfurter Zeitung writes: "Kor three months the Government lias allowed prices to rush up in the wildest disorder, and now the consequence is that we cannot Tcturn to a reasonable and just scale. The maximum prices as fixed by the Government are neither cheap nor just; they have reached a level which eight weeks asro no man would have dared to mention openly." I How. then, are we women to face what is to come? If the women of our working classes are to survive, the stress and privation of war time as far as possible uninjured in health and vitality, they must claim with ever-incrcasin<Min-rtrnry the means to obtain their °food

more cheaply. There went its rounds a little time ago an article in which, after the model of a "Guide to *-ovoletter Writing," women were advised to picture in their letters to their husbands at the front the life at home as a comfortable, prosperous idyll. Women were solemnly lectured on the heroism of bearing privations bravely and in silence What contemptible nonsense! The situation is far too grave for that. Women must fight against privations. That is our task. TOMATO RECIPES. As tomatoes are now in season, and are so much used and are so refreshing in the hot weather, a few simple ways of serving them may be of use. I think tomato soup is really one of the nicest. Meat soups are a little too heavy on some of our very hot days, and tomato soup may be made entirely with milk. Take twelve large tomatoes, small piece of onion, small piece of bacon or bacon rind, a few peppercorns, one 1 quart of milk, a dessertspoonful of butter, small dessertspoonful of flour, a pinch of carb. of soda. Salt and cayenne to taste. Cut up the tomatoes and onion, place in a saucepan with the bacon and peppercorns, and a little water Cook until the tomatoes are very soft, then rub through a colander or sieve. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the flour, then the milk; stir over the fire until it boils; add the tomato puree, the carb. of soda, and seasonings. Return to the stove, and bring to the boil. Serve with croutons of fried reread. A little cream is an improvement, or the tomatoes may be cooked in stock.

Tomato and Celery Salads.—Six tomatoes, one lettuce, one stick of celery, some salad dressing. For the dressing: Two eggs, hard boiled, teaspoon of mustard, one tablespoon condensed milk, one dessertspoon of oil, one teaspoon of buter, melted, one tablespoon vinegar, pepper, salt and lemon juice. Cut the tops of the tomatoes, scoop out the insides, wash and scrape the celery, cut a few pieces about 2in long, throw into cold, salted -water. Shred the remainder of the white parts very finely. To make the dressing, take the yolks of the eggs, beat quite smooth, add to them ■ the condensed milk, mustard, vinegar and butter. If using oil, it must be added drop by drop, beating all the time. Lastly, add salt, pepper and lemon juice. Let stand for a short time. If you tind the mixture becomes very thick add I a little fresh milk to make the desired consistency, then add some of the tomato pulp and the shredded celery. Fill the tomato cases with the mixture, sprinkle over the top with finely chopped white of egg, and stand one or more pieces of the curled celery in the centre of each, and place each tomato on a lettuce leaf. fThis, like all other salads, is improved by putting in the ice chest some time before serving. Oyster and Tomato Salads.—Six oysters, one large tomato, one lettuce, one lemon. Stew the tomato by first placing in boiling water, cut into thin. [ slices, place each slice on a lettuce leaf, , sprinkle with a little vinegar, pepper and salt, then place on it a very thin slice of lemon; on the top of the lemon a raw oyster. Sprinkle with a little I lemon juice, cayenne and salt. Tomato Savoury.—Cut some tomatoes into rounds, fry in a little butter, have ready some small rounds of buttered toast, place a slice of tomato on each round, cover with a few capers. Put in the oven for a few minutes. Serve verv hot. Macaroni and Tomatoes.—Quarter- ( pound macaroni, life tomatoes, salt, pepJ per, butter, bread crumbs and grated I cheese. Cook the macaroni in boiling [ salted water until soft. Stew the to- | matoes, first placing them in boiling I water. Mix well with the maearoni, ( season with salt and cayenne, place in ( a pie dish, cover with a layer of bread i crumbs, then a layer of grated cheese. I Bake in a hot oven for twenty minutes.

"THE GIRL WHO TOOK THE WRONG TURNING."

It's a wise mistress that knows her own maid. Recently a Fendalton resident entrusted her one and only son to the mercies of a brand new maid, with instructions to take the infant to the park, a special instruction being that by no means was the child to be taken into a house. The maid departed, with a final order to be home by 4 o'clock. That hour duly turned up, then 5, halfpast, and 6 o'clock, and no sign of the I family. The mother and father became troubled, excited ,and finally hysterically fearful —fearful that something had befallen the child. Still no appearance. OTic neighbors, with their wonderful faculty for scenting trouble, hurried round, and then parties set out on tne track of the pair. But there was no sisni of amaid, a pram, ad a male child. No one had seen them anywhere. A motor was hurriedly dispatched to an address in St. Albans, supposed to be the habitation of the maid, but it was found that the girl lived not there, though there was another street with a similar name in Sydenham. Here it was learned that the girl had exceeded her instructions and had gone to her own home, but had left on the return journey some time previously. This information seriously complicated matters. The mother was now thoroughly convinced that some disaster had occurred, and that her child was the victim. Neighbors scurried round the whole countryside, surveying all likely places where a maid, a pram, and a baby boy might be, and they might have been looFing still had it not occurred to the girl, who had really lost herself on her journey from her old home to her new one, to return to her original place of residence. At about 8 o'clock it also occurred to the father of the girl that probably the infant's parents would be interested enough to know of its whereabouts, general health, the condition of its bottle, and so forth. With this idea firmly planted in his head. th c girl's father communicated with the now desperate parents, sayina the child was safe. The parents answered that the child would he sent for, but there was no need to trouble any more about thc maid. Hy},! l ,. 1 " r