In the narrowed view men and wom
en who had only recently known the
tremendous sufferings of the infla
tion period, who had had no rest or
escape from the strain of things since
the coming of the war itself, showed
in their faces. In their manner, the
same general air of hopelessness. You
had the sense in Berlin in the Winter
of 192 R not so much of a beaten pen
pie as of a people who helieved that
there was no future, no hope. There
was a sense of moral isolation, of ma
t.erial misery, there were on all sides
the evidences of a complete and crush
ing weight of mental and physical
despair.
City Had Wretched Air.
Berlin Itself was a dirty, drah. empty
city. The shadows of the great regime
and of the dominating figures of the
| past still rested over the city. All that
! was great and prosperous Identified
; Itself with what had disappeared. The
j republic Itself was synonymous with
! all that had happened between Ver
j sallies and the Ruhr. In a measure
1 Berlin then was like Vienna now. a
I city with a great and still recently
i great past, but a city without any
1 faith In the future.
