The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-09-16
France, Germany and Greenbacks.


To the Editor of the Press:
Our Greenback friends have been fond Of
referring to France as prospecting greatly In
consequence of having paper money, as they
say. 1t is true that France has felt the pinch
of hard times less than any other country in
Europe, but paper money there holds nearly or
quite the same place that it does in this coun-
try, but has at no time within these latter
years been at large discount for gold.
A FreDchman-Victor Tisson-has been
travelling lately in Germany. and has pub
lshed book which he entities Voyaqe au Pays
des MiAiards-a most interesting account of
persons aud things that he saw in that country
of the Billions-which it received in gold from
France as war indemnity. To-day came
upon curious passage 10 this book which may
interest our Greenback friends, who Imagine
that happiness and bouLdless prosperity will
come from abundant money.
premise by saying that at the close Of the
Franco-German war Bismarck demanded q
billion of dollars from France as indemnity for
the cost of the war; and this was actually paid
and received, not in irreceemable paper money,
but in gold. Everybody in Germany supposed
that this immense influx of the precious metal
would make the nation rich and the people
prosperous. Monsieur Tisson shows In his
book what the effect really was.
Secs cling milliards-these five billions ;oy
francs) which fell into the public chest made all
the Germans lose their heads. They thought
in Berlin that the old mythological times were
returned, they imagined that the Spree, q little
dirty stream running through Berlin, would
flow with spangles OF gold. and that any one
by STOPPING could enrich himself. This hallu-
cination lasted year. They started thous-
and enterprises; stock companies sprang out Of
the ground like toad stools after q shower;
everything was put into shares-slaughter
houses, beer shops, groceries, streets, canals,
highways, houses were sold on Change and
in two hours they changed hands five or six
times. In eight months the price of real estate
was doubled. A house of five stories was sold
for million (S2OO,OOO). Lodgings were quoted
on change like actual values for speculation.
Fifty, sixty persons sometimes disputed about
garret. In 1872 they reckoned fifty to sixty
five inhabitants to each house (the houses Of
Berlin have usually only three or four storiesl,
that is to say, ten persons to each chamber.
Masons amassed fortunes working ten hours;
they threw off champagne ia tall beer glasses
and went from the work shop to the beer
shop in carriages. A simple hod carrier
made cling haIers par jour ($3 rs a dayl.
Little bank clerks without place and with no
shoes to day, spread themselves out il white,
gloves in the first places at the theaters and paid
roundly for the luxury Of Italian dancing girls.
Silver was in plenty, it came out of all its hid
ing places, it rushed to meet French gold, to
fructify by the contact and to produce q mar
velous issue of So go and 80 psr cent At the
distant rumbing of the gold-laden wagons
bearing the seal of the bank of France, the
earth trembled and opened as la a fairy scene
and there started up from 1t beer shops ike
palaces; restaurants grander than cathedrals:
enchanted gardens where the perfume of fiow-
ers and the tones Of sweet music were mingled.
In winter it was in the warm and voluptuous
atmosphere OF vast green houses; 10 summer at
the border Of cascades and of refreshing foun-
tans."
'The people demanded places of pleasure and
amusement; they cried out for Bread and Di-
versions. like the Romans after the conquest Of
the provinces. They built the Rdisergalleris
with its gildings and eccentric adornments;
they built the Flora, near Charlottenb burg, the
only such establishment in the world, with diu-
ing rooms for two thousand persons, and ball
room that opened on a green-house filed with
palms and fragrant trees of many sorts. Specu-
latine companies disputed with each other by
bids of millions for the purchase Of fendsl cas-
ties 10 the environs OF Berlin, to transform
them into summer beer houses. with theatres in
the open air, with lakes ~Gasll boats ald
artificial mountains an( diaries ADD
games of all Sorts Bud bn des Mile
ct une Nuts (of the ights) lasted
only one year; only q ye zen an endf
The temples of Pleasure al Graces are
now in bankruptcy and b riffs officers
nave seized the culver OF Cdp(d
"All Germany that nation of thinkers az her
philosophers call her allowed herself to be
mised by this deceitful mirage Eg-r rhe share
ones used the bilious as bird caIchers employ
mirrors to entrap lsrks. Five, ten speculative
enterprises went up in single day; while the
shares were being subscribed the managers
disappeared aud the stroug box showed
double bottomp'
Extortion was at its worst. Honorable
people who had the misfortune to have entered
the doors of change, received on the morrow
anonymous letters in which they were threat
ensd with the disclosure of certain tales Of
youthful folly or of family affairs. Blackmail-
ers had recourse to pablo notices containing
ailusions that the victim alone could UNDER
stand. Sometimes the object of these letters
was to disturb an enemy or to drive away .
competition
'In March, 1872 there we're in Berlin 6Ss
speculative companies, Limited and Unlimited;
at the end of 1872 there were almost $50 OF
them. In this number bulldog societies were
Billions flowed there was, as after the overflow
of the Nile, real springtime of industry; but
the too rapid Towering bore no fruit; plants
aud trees were scorched and dried to the root.
Take look now at the change. What do
you see on the column of dividends? Only
zer0s opening their hungry mouthsr'
''rhe shares of more than 200 enterprises In
the last January had only q nominal quotation
on change. the middling class OF people.
those who form the heart Of honest industry,
Were those who especially allowed themselves
to be duped by these hazardous speculatons.
1t was hard lesson, which may however have
good results Experience will show TO every
body that industry alone can increase personal
or national wealth, and that billions caught in
the throw of a uet can produce only idleness,
encourage robbery, create imaginary wants,
leading to ruiu. The Gazette de ToSs raising
the same note of alarm, ssys-lS75-that Ger
many seems to have entered upon a course Lead
ing to overthrow and general ruin"
"rhe governor of the Pfussisn Bank declared
in report published January 1,1S73, that the
originators Of these speculative companies had