Cooper, Ethel – December 1916
10.12.16
My dear Emmie,
… The coal question is most serious. I am not often wise in time in household matters, but last winter I had a good deal of trouble getting coal, so early last Autumn I ordered four tons, and with care that will carry me through till Easter. But I hear that after Christmas we are to be put on an allowance of gas and electric light, so [Ethel’s friend] Telemaque has had a brilliant idea of getting seven people who we like together, and one evening a week all the seven will sit in his flat and be warmed and lighted, and one evening here, or at Frl. Sander’s, and so on. We are to bring our supper, and the host will provide tea! I say that we shall soon be so sick of each other that we would sooner sit at home and be cold in the dark, but Telemaque is proud of his plan…
17.12.16
My dear Emmie,
There has only been one topic of conversation here, and I suppose, in the whole world, since Tuesday – Germany’s proposition of peace. I have not met one person – German, neutral or otherwise, who has pretended for a moment to take it seriously. But still we know what terms she offers, one can’t tell whether a conference may be the eventual result or not…
There is a new order about gas and light, which is driving us all to alter our ways of living. I have shut up all the rooms but the music room and bedroom…Frl Sander is giving up her servant and having a char-woman as I do… You can’t feed servants now-a-days, they won’t live on their rations as we do, but simply take anything that is in the house and moreover there are almost no servants to be had – they are all going to factory and ammunition work… We are in the middle of the short, dark days, and it is really hard to be economical with gas, for it is dark by four o’clock…
24.12.16
My dear Emmie,
It is Christmas Eve, and that being the busiest day in the year, I doubt if I shall get far. I lighted on quite a brilliant idea of presents here. Hilda Lay works in a hospital, and has the right to buy scrubbing cloths and kitchen soaps. We can’t get those things without a permit, so I have got Hilda to buy me all she can, and my presents consist of a scrubbing cloth and a piece of soap for everybody!…
Christmas brought me the most comical collection of presents that you can imagine. If I could afford it, I would like to pack them all up as a memento. Soap, mustard, curry powder, infant food, coffee, jam, tinned fish, soup tablets, dried mushrooms, a packet of biscuits – invaluable things which will make life easier for weeks and weeks to come…
31.12.16
My dear Emmie
The last letter from the old year. I am waiting for the two or three people who are coming to see the New Year in with me… I had made a hot punch of claret, rum, cloves and lemons, cut some sandwiches of black bread with herring paste, a jelly made of a suspicious looking jelly-powder (and the water tap!) and there is some fruit – quite a good supper for these days…
