The Republican., 1900-08-30
STRANDED AMERICANS.
Exposition Are Robbed and
SwindIed Mt Every Step.

''There is lot of tribulation among
the Americans who have gone to Paris
to see the exposition on strictly
economical basis" said a guest at one
of the hotels, who is fresh from the
French capital, reports the New Or
leans Times-D Democrat "a large pro-
portion of that class are women. They
have posted themselves in advance,
from misleading articles written by
people who were evidently never
abroad, memorized a dozen or so use
full phrases and rushed across to do
the big show on $3.50 day. Such a
tourist has about as much show in
Paris as spring chicken in pack of
wolves. The poor innocents, who
have been told that everybody
speaks English over there, get off the
train to find themselves in babel of
foreign tongues and without the
least idea which way to turn. Nat
urally, they are at the mercy of the
first sharper they meet, and scores of
them have been plucked clean, then
and there, on the preteXt of changing
their money into French currency
Others are lugged off to shady pen
sions and swindled in detail Most of
the unsophisticated strangers expect
to get rooms at a dollar a day or less
and have made their calculations ac-
cordingly. The cheapest quarters to
be had in Partisan boarding-houses at
present are 300 francs a month, and
one is exceptionally lucky to strike
comfortable lodging in a good location
at that figure. Everything else is in
proportion, and while there are no
extra charges at the exposition prop
er, the Midway attractions have
feetakcr at every turn. The Swiss
village and old Paris, which are the
two principal features. have a fixed
price of admission and innumerable
special charges designed to catch
greenhorns. 1t is like church fair
two-bits to get in and i've dollars to
get out-and the visitor who can't
speak the language will incur all sorts
of obligations before he knows it.
1t is perfectly useless for him to bluff
and bluster, because those two things
are the Frenchman's long suit. The
native sharper will scream, below,
gesticulate, get black in the face and
work himself into such fake frenzy
that the expostulating victim will be
only too glad to pay the bill and
escape.
"A few days before I left Paris"
continued the speaker, 81 had occa-
sion to call at the American consulate
in the Avenue de fOpera, and was
surprised 20 find the ante-room crowd
ed with people who nearly all seemed
worried and detected. while waiting
l fell into conversation with a pale
little woman who told me typical
tale of woe. She was a music teacher
from a town in Iowa and had been
saving up for the trip Cor several
years. She started with 1925, firmly
convinced that that would cover all
the expenses of the journey and a six
weeks stay in Paris, but when | saw
her she hau been there only ten days
and had about SIS left. Her story
would have been amusing if it hadn't
been so pathetic. Being totally unac-
customed to travel, she had been
swindled right and left from the mo-
ment she started, and her little store
of money melted like snow. The pen
sion to which she had been directed
was full and she went to another,
where they charged her five dollars a
day. She thought it was francs until
she saw the bin, and then they
claimed she had taken the room for
month, threatened her with arrest
and scared her out of $50 as a com
promise. A she-harpy whom she met
took her to a restaurant for a treat.
pretended she had lost her purse and
made the little music teacher foot
bill of $11. The concierge bullied her
out of five dollars, and cabman
charged the same amount for a half
hours drive, the legal rate being two
francs. At another restaurant she
gave the cashier a 100-franc note and
got change for five. Finally, to cap
the climax, somebody stole her hand
satchel containing her return trip
steamship ticket and on the verge of
distraction she came to see the consul.
Arrangements were made to send her
back, but the head clerk of the con-
sulate told me that was merely one
case out of dozens. He said the office
was simply besieged by tieeced and
stranded Americans who didn't know
how in the world they were going to
get home, and he dreaded to think
of what it would be later on in the
season. OF course, the consul is pro-
vided with no fund for aiding such
unfortunates, and whatever he does
is at his own expense. The best he
can do in many cases is to get free
cablegram to friends across the
pond"
Yorkshire TimbaIes.