Almost every day is tag day in Berlin. You can't poke your head out
of the door without a collection-box being shoved at you. Boys and
girls work at this eternally. They go through the trains and the cafés
and restaurants, not one at a time but in steady streams. You may be
walking along a very quiet street and you will see a lady come smiling
toward you. Apparently she is empty-handed, but just as she comes up
to you, she whisks a box out from behind her muff or newspaper and
politely begs a mite.
The Germans give unceasingly to these collections. They put in only
ten pfennigs at a time, but I have often watched men and women in the
cafés, and they will give to half a dozen youngsters in half an hour.
They really prefer to give their charity donations in this way instead
of in a large lump. They get more pleasure out of it.
[Illustration: _Traveling Soup Kitchen._]
The day just before I left Berlin for Copenhagen, I had been
pestered about ten times in one square. The collection was called the
_U-Boot-Spende_, and it was a collection for the wives and children of
the sailors who had lost their lives on the U-boats. At one corner a
boy of about thirteen years stopped me by raising his hat and asking if
he dared beg a few pfennigs for the _U-Boot-Spende_.
[Illustration: _The Roland of Brandenburg, Original Statue._]
"Now, look here," I said to him, "Why should I give to this? I am a
_feindliche Ausländerin_ (an enemy foreigner) and if I give you any
money it encourages you Germans to go on sinking American ships. I must
save my money for the wives and the children of the men who have lost
their lives by the U-boats."
[Illustration: _The Iron Roland of Brandenburg._]
The boy blushed deeply. "That is true," he said, "I beg your pardon.
I feel for those people too. And if you will allow me I would like
to donate something for your charity," and the little fellow pulled a
mark out of his pocket and handed it to me. I found out afterwards that
the boy was the son of one of Germany's richest and most aristocratic
princes.
Besides the tag days there are many women who go around selling little
picture sheets for ten pfennigs. Countless numbers of these sheets have
sprung up since the war. The companies that publish them make only a
small profit and the rest of the money goes to charity.
[Illustration: _The Blacksmith of Bochum in Westphalia._]
One of the best ways the Germans have of collecting money is the
driving of nails into wooden statues and charging so much to each
person for being allowed to drive a nail. The "Iron Hindenburg" is the
greatest of all these figures, but there are many more even in Berlin.
Many cafés have their own figures to nail, sometimes it is only an
eagle or an Iron Cross. In Brandenburg they have a wooden copy of their
famous old stone statue of Roland that has stood for centuries in the
Brandenburg market place. The stone figure was funny and quaint enough,
but the nailed figure looks like some queer product of cubist art.
[Illustration: _Nailed Statue. Statue of German Landsturm Man at
Posen._]
[Illustration: _Entertaining "Kriegskinder."_]
The _Mittelstandsküche_ and the _Volksküche_ are also charitable
organizations and are run by women's clubs. These kitchens are places
where the middle and lower class people can get a good meal for from
fifty to seventy pfennigs,--a meal consisting of soup, meat, potatoes
and a vegetable. Compote or stewed fruit can be bought for ten pfennigs
a dish, and salad can be bought for the same price. They do not have
bread, you must bring that with you. They cut off your food cards
for meat and potatoes, but they are not very strict about it. If you
were terribly hungry and went to a _Volksküche_ you could very likely
get something to eat without a card. The city sees that these places
are well provided for, and often you could not get potatoes in the
fashionable restaurants, but the kitchens always had them.
[Illustration: _The Iron Hindenburg on the Kaiser's Birthday._]
Besides these kitchens, club women have a traveling soup kitchen. It
consists of a goulash cannon driven around the streets on a wagon, and
the people come with their buckets to get a hot stew for thirty-five
pfennigs.
The American Chamber of Commerce had a fine soup kitchen in Berlin. It
was opened two winters ago with great pomp, and Mr. and Mrs. Gerard
were present at the occasion. Society ladies took turns helping in
the kitchen, and they made it a very great success. Everything served
in the kitchen was free and the food was splendid. They served many
hundred people each day.
In Munich the Americans have a hospital which they conduct themselves.
I don't know how it is run since America got into the war, but before
this time the Americans paid for everything. Two years ago the American
ladies in Dresden had a bazar for the German Red Cross. They made many
thousand marks. In Berlin there is a very rich American man who keeps
the families of one hundred and fifty German soldiers that have been
killed in the war. When America got into the war, it was thought that
his charity would end, but he said, "No, these poor women and children
cannot help it that America is in the war."
[Illustration: _Frau Becker's Children Out for a Walk._]
One of the greatest charitable organizations in Berlin is a day nursery
run by Frau Hofrat Becker. The nursery is where the working wives
of soldiers can leave their babies each day while they are at work.
No children can be left with Frau Becker unless the mother shows a
certificate that she works. The children can be left at five o'clock in
the morning and they are kept there until night.
Frau Becker has five of these homes located in different parts of
Berlin, and I have visited all of them. In each home she has about
one hundred and fifty children--little babies from six weeks old up to
four years of age. Some of the children seemed very happy but others
were pinched looking little things who looked as though the battle of
life was too great for them. The babies are given milk and bread for
breakfast and at noon a warm stew.
Besides taking care of the babies, Frau Becker gives the older children
who go to school a warm noon-day meal, and after school she gives
them coffee or bread. Then she provides these larger children with
employments and amusements so they will be kept off the streets. The
larger girls sew and knit, and the boys learn songs and games. All the
helpers are voluntary, and they receive no pay.
[Illustration: _Berlin Youngsters Going to a Fresh Air Camp in East
Prussia._]
Nearly every family in Germany of the better middle class have what
they call a _Kriegskind_, or a "war child." They take a boy or girl of
some poor family and give them their meals. The family where I visited
in Dresden had had a little girl since the beginning of the war. When
the war broke out, Hilda was nine years old, and you cannot imagine
what a change has taken place in her during the three years. She has
now very nice manners, she is very clean and she has learned to sew and
play the piano. Hilda is one of a family of eleven children. The father
is a _Landsturm_ man in the war, and he makes thirty-eight pfennigs a
day.
One of the greatest charity collections is the gold-collection. The
Empress started this collection by giving a lot of gold ornaments,
and many people have followed her example. The story goes around in
Germany--personally I doubt if it is true--that the Crown Princess gave
to the collection all the gold plates that King Edward of England had
given her for a wedding present, and when the plates were melted down
they were all found to be plated.