HOW THE GERMANS ARE FARING.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 March 1918, Page 2

HOW THE GERMANS ARE FARING.

SCANTILY CLOTHED. Not Afore Than Two Suits • of Under- " wear Allowed —No One Can Get a > Card to Buy New Boots, unless tlie 4 Old Ones are Beyond Repair —Fe£l--3 ing the Pinch. ■ '■ Writing from Basle * the «nd of October, Mr. Herbert torjjijv gives tins picture of living conditio ' hi Germany to-dav: — . ' Suppose that you were living in"Gijj- ' many to-day and that you were tired ,f)f wearing your old clothe*. Maybe yQIW ' wife had begun to comment bitterly the indirect angles in your trousers t ' t oi" 1 maybe your best girl tried to bruslv 1 dust off your coat collar, and you stop her for fear the collar would t)d brushed off with the dust. Suppose ycfti said to yourself: "I shall buy ine some new clothes" 'fhis is the way you would go about 1 it. I| yolt wanted to make.a thorough job you would begin with your primeval man, And seek to put n<;w underclothes on him. You would go'dotfh to police station of your district' and explain your need, and then you'tvouidi'bif ! turned over to the X<>w Clothing Bureati> the German name of which is too cote plicated and abstruse for publication l . The New Clothing Bureau is manned, by ladies of suspicious temperament iind.a brusque turn of manner. Those, who have suffered from their'-inquiries declare that tlley have been chosen from that walk of life in which the head of the Kouse has two shirts—one for work and one for Sunday and the bicrhalic—:and two shirts only. The ladies look with positive hostility upon- the patrician who boasts of three shirts. ''l wish to buy some- underolotiheiS)" you say; blushing, to the inspectress who is assigned to your case. She is as officious and overbearing and unphasant as all German sub-officials are always supposed to be. My 6wn experience with German.sub-officials -has been very pleasant, bub other, people have described them as something meaner than poison ivy. The herewith, included description of, the inspectresses of those who want new clothing comes 1 from purely German sources. . Good, loyal, \ aterland-loving and Kaiser-wor-shipping Germans have blown themselves up to the form and color of 10 cent balloons in describing these inspectresses and their high, insolent overbearingness. Aj. any rate, the inspectress desires to see your present stock of underclothes. 'T have four suits/' you admit. "But you are only permitted to'have two suits," says the inspectress. It s the ;l :|ruth, too. Under the new regulations 'the Gorman citizen is ehtitled to have two suits of undenve.ir, thickness, material, and condition not stated, and no more. If there are holes in them, it is your business to see that the holes ere darned. 'Not until you have definitely less than two suits can you get a card enabling you U purchase tJhe missing links in your armor agairut the bitter wind of a German winter. T have never lienrd of the excess of underwear being confiscated h<-the State, but that may yet come for the Secondhand Clothing Bureau, which, will be described later. More leniency, is shown toward footwear. You may not buy a ,pair qf shoes —you positively may not—until tire old shoes are completely done for, Thev have been half-soled with leather and finally with wood, and. thofy- have' b'e»ji reuppered with leather and finally with leather substitute, but at last the .end has definitely come. Then, you may get permission to buy new. The old shoes are attached to the permit card by tin' salesman, and sent to some refitt;ng establishment, v?iere the nails are piesumably pulled out to be used over ngp.in,_ and what there is left of the material is worked over in some fashion' But. you may have three pairs of socks without starting some fresh legislation' against luxury and waste. _ Assuming that you have satisfied the inspectress on the utter raggedness of your concealed haberdashery, although sufferers allege that no inspectress has ever yet- been actually satisfied bv the condition of anyone who was unable to reach the bureau 'by daylight, and you demand the right to buy shirts. You have only two shirts. Therefore you are entitled to buy one more shirt, there is no hope of cheating the Government in this, for a census has been tacen which discloses the precise number of shirts and other gauds you possess. There are no restrictions as to the'number of linen collars you may have, but you must get, a card permit from the inspectress before you buy more. And in the matter of clothes S" J' you have one suit of clothes you "*!, <llat you are entitled to- _ l lie Government assumes that nothhappon to ti,e ° ne Ult, and thnt you do not need a reserve line of dot .ma to fall back upon. No distinction between a Sunday suit and a working suit has ever entered the administrative head. You can positively n , vef. a f m i i' ° r any P ° rtion Qf a sn 't. (XCL..S of the one suit limit. Arid if fJint * nVO on ° or< ' rcoa t it is assumed ,~ at > cu . ar « overcoated sufficiently'for any occasion. It makes no difference if he one overcoat is waist-long and lue a lamp shade, and was only, intended to protect you from cold looks at a summer resort. The weather may be as meiedibly cold as only a German'winter , " and still you will " n ", hump yourself to work clad in, that fan A.,t ic garment. It is an overcoat, is it not.' Very well, then You have a hat. While you-have a ■ml you may not buy more hat- Only the wearied owners of hats that will not wear out know what a power of longevity there is in,a well-made, strong .dome-shaped lid of felt that mav be battered and holed and torn, and' still > )0 ~ scss the outward seeming of a hat.' vHt to < t). lt - may ♦ " as3llmod vour ""it .t°. the inspectresses in search of a permission to buy clothes has failed 0 f ! purpose. Any man—every mat' vou know-has a closet full of old clothes s ,11S \ vife ''i l " found n more than I'll!? "I' do' man 01-l l r ent MllC3 in those ti,i, it, T '" U3t b ° Worn out - is true that you may sell them and-it hideous and exorbitant price* \n tneTZ Ce h ° Germanv a 0 "10 & fn, party sgld his cast-ofT boes foi 7n marks a pair, take the lot/ J* '*• t0 a university professor. ". a,,n onncement of a deaMi irr a? German paper now brings clothes-buvers' o the door—not- all professional clothes '".vers, but in some cases friends of the departed, who have a hankering f or the flannel a l,iru erS ° f P °° r Hftll3 ' or the - nannel shirt he wore at the slinot-verein s l>nt no man in his senses will sell old ■ clothes m German v now. Xo J,™' wool,! you, ,f you were there. No man i v "T S J* I**' 1 **' "-"other year will Drill- 1 forth. -Inrtead of getting the legal vigh't i t. peacock m new garments, rour visit ' to.tne New Clothing Bureau results in ! your being definitely condemned i