Peace; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
I had some friends living in Frankfurt to whom I confided our distress.
I do not know which was more difficult, keeping up a German conversation
over the telephone or assuring them I was hard pressed for money. After
a dozen serious conversations over the 'phone, backed up by a number of
German postals, I got two hundred and fifty dollars from one and
seventy-five dollars from another. I also got two letters from friends,
one from Berlin and the other from Dresden, asking if I needed help, and
I hoisted the signal of distress in a hurry. Only a small part of this
money could be kept as a reserve fund, as we now owed two weeks' board.
Fortunately the banks had opened again and our government had sent
instructions to give us money on our letters of credit, using their own
discretion. I had to wait all day until I could get near a bank, and
then the cashier said one hundred and fifty dollars was all we needed.
When I explained it was not enough he became angry and accused me of
calling him names. He made a terrible fuss in his bank and for a few
moments I thought he would have me arrested. The question of money was
only one of the many difficulties. Germany was so excited by the
presence of spies in her midst that she at times accused the twinkling
stars of being bombs thrown into the air. Determined to rid her country
of spies, she sent policemen accompanied by watchdogs to search the
Russians and to find out the whereabouts of the others. One morning we
were notified we must all present ourselves at the schoolhouse where we
were to exhibit our passports or other credentials. It was really a
funny sight to watch nearly two hundred thousand Russians and Americans
trying to force a way into a small schoolhouse. When the work first
started, the soldiers and first aides tried to arrange the throng in
single, double and triple files, but after half an hour's venture the
rope gave way and the people found themselves where they started. I was
soon tired with the overpowering mob and went home to begin all over in
the afternoon. After two hours hard work we had gone from the first step
to the inner door. The actual work went more quickly, for when the
recorder saw passports marked with the red seal of Washington, D. C., he
was satisfied and asked few questions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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