Good Munich beer is now a luxury obtainable only in a few high-class establishments. The materials, which usually come from Russia, are naturally all stopped; moreover, the strong young fellows who generally work in the large breweries are now at the front. It would not be surprising in a few months to see Germany reduced to drinking aerated waters. Upon reflection I think I must be wrong, however, for there is now in Germany plenty of champagne--champagne of German make, which is sold at very low prices, and excellent French champagne of the best brand, sold a lot cheaper than it was ever possible to buy it, even in France. A large shop in Unter den Linden displayed a window full of "Mumm," "Clicquot," "Pommery," and practically all other first-class champagnes at five marks (five shillings) a bottle. In the middle of the window was a large poster saying that here was a unique opportunity, and that every Berliner must have on his Christmas dinner table a bottle of good French champagne to drink the health of the Kaiser. This is probably the first effect of the wholesale sack of Rheims. To obtain such a noble result even the shelling of the cathedral was not too much. I was struck by the enormous number of children in the street. The first time I observed this I thought that I was near a school and that the children were just coming out; later on I saw that it was the same everywhere. I very often saw a lady with ten or twelve children, as though she were taking a whole school for a walk. The explanation is that children from the towns and villages near the Russian frontier have been sent to Berlin; a great number have arrived also from Galicia. The schools are all closed, and the children thus left free all day long. * * * I have said that the Berliners have been taken by a sort of mania which makes them detest everybody on earth who has not the great fortune to be born a German subject. I was not quite right. If, besides the enemy she is fighting, Germany loathes Italy for having deserted her and also for having taken Valona (the Albanian port which Germany meant to offer Italy as a bribe for neutrality), America for supporting Belgium and sending ammunition to the Entente, Austria for not doing well enough, etc., she has still a place in her well-protected heart for one tender love. The lucky country which occupies this position is Turkey. Everyone in Berlin talks of the Turks as the best soldiers in the world (always excepting the Germans, of course). Enver Pasha is considered one of the best servants of the Kaiser. Turkey has taken the place of Italy in the defunct Triple Alliance. In the streets of Berlin I saw quite a number of fez, only a few of them worn by Turks. The others were worn by children or by the plump beauties of the German capital, amongst whom the fez is perhaps even more popular than is the "Tipperary" cap over here.