Henry Masterman Mist Diaries and Prisoners Pie Magazine
Diaries of Heny Masterman Mist and a copy of Prisoners’ Pie, the Ruhleben Camp magazine. Learn more.
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A Fraternal Greeting.
Dear Chefs,
I thank you for your note informing me that you intend to make a Pie and asking me to send along some ingredient or other.
My first care was to find out what exactly were the constituents of previous prisoners' pies; but, mes chers confreres, I must confess that my untiring efforts in this direction have been rather fruitless. For although concentration camps were, for example, quite an institution in the Napoleonic Wars, it seems that poor prisoners took no thought of their literary palates. I discovered, too, by the aid of ancient and I believe fairly authentic documents, that the ancestors of some of us, about 3500 years ago, actually spent 215 years of captivity in the land of the Sphinx. In this case my research was rewarded by the discovery of subtle references to "the groanings of the people"; but even here the attendant facts were neither numerous nor even definite enough for us to presume that the groanings were the unfortunate consequences of a Pie. I may therefore safely assume that your Pie is the very first of its kind, and I should like to express the wish that it be a dainty, tasty bit of confectionery.
In conclusion may I welcome you both to the "Circle" of Camp Editors. Up to the present I have been ploughing a lonely furrow. I am sure you will agree that Editors in general are among the greatest of public benefactors. Your addition to the honourable company is therefore for my personal pleasure and the public weal. Wishing you the largest possible circulation,
I am, Yours truly, The Editor of "In Ruhleben Camp".
Ease and Disease.
Among the many superstitions which are prevalent in this present enlightened age, none is more pernicious in its effects than that which tends to consider work and happiness synonymous and interchangeable terms. The origin of this superstition lies, of course, in the remarkable "speeding-up" of life in general, due to the introduction and development of machinery, which has taken place all over the world during the nineteenth century. Material and social conditions having combined to drive the individual into that more intense and concentrated work which finally produces the specialist, prophets were not long in making their appearance with doctrines which provided a moral basis for the kind of life involved, and another set of forces which would help to repress any desire for escape from this new life. The Gospel of Effort was promulgated, Carlyle proclaimed that "Work is a perennial
BC Archives, MS-2570 Box 1 File 6 MIST, Henry Masterman Ruhleben magazine, Prisoners’ Pie, 1916