Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-03-21


wages are from Is to SO cents q day. and
they eat and sleep themselves. zcIs
: The department stores do all they can to
attract custom and visitors. Take Vert
helms, which Is the biggest store in Ber-
lin. 1t has winter garden filled with palm
trees and tropical plants and so covered
with ferns that they make perfect carpet
on each side the path. There is fountain
in 1t and seats under the palms where the
customers can rest and chat between the
intervals Of shopping. In the summer there
is an additional garden and fountain. Inc
store has a lncheon room and all the other
attractions of similar establishments in the
United States.
Teitz's Department Store. which ranks
next to Wertheims, has an American soda
fountain. which came from Philadelphia.
The fountain is an immense one, made or
marble and silver. 1t has about one hum
dred spigots. 1t furnishes ice cream soda,
but the drink does not compare with our
American article. This is one of the few
soda fountains in Berlin and 1t is well pa
tronized.
Pictures While You Wait.
Both of these stores have their photo
graph galleries. with special days for men,
women and children. The day I visited
Wertheim's was evidently baby day, for a
score and more of babies were waiting to
be taken. The photographer was swell
dressed in long black frock coat and
creased trousers. He showed me his in
Simultaneous apparatus. consisting in part
of magnesium flash lights operated by cleo
tricity. All his photographs are made In
one-hundredth of a second, which Is espe-
cially good for the babies.
Another feature of the stores are their
theater bureaus. Each sells tickets for all
the operas, concerts. varieties and other
amusements Teitz has recently added a
travelling bureau, where you can buy rail-
road and steamship tickets and have round
trip rates all over Europe at reduced prices.
One of the chief drawba cks in this trade
is the lack Of cash carriers or cash boys.
The clerks are not allowed to handle money.
They merely make out a check for you
and you go with them to one of the CASH
iers desks stationed in different parts of
the store and yourself pay over the money.
At the same time the clerk hands your
purchases to the bundle boy to be wrapped
up and goes back to his work.
Buying Departments.
I don't know whether our department.
stores have the same system OF buying
goods which is common here. On the top
floors of the department stores are sample
rooms with counters and all facilities for
displaying goods. On certain days of the
week certain kinds of goods are bought, and
on these days the men selling such goods
appear with their samples Monday, for
instance, may be corset day. At that time
all the corset statesmen from Berlin and
elsewhere come to the store and fix their
samples in the rooms allotted to them. The
buyers of the store go over them and order
such as they want. Another day may be
devoted to dresses, coats, etc., and third
to hardware.
Berlin is one Of the chief manufacturing
cities of Europe, and many kinds of goods
are made in it. 1t is noted for its notions,
IT,, tic 20 hoo ,i,,cr IO1v
The Berlinese are fond of novelties, and
Americans should send their newest things
to this market. Already variety OF
American goods are sold in the department
machines. typewriters, Photographic instru-
ments, American furniture and desks hav-
ing sections devoted to them.
The Great German Stomach.
have taken several Turkish baths since
I came to Berlin, and while doing so have
had a bird's-eye view of the great
German stomach. 1t is enormous! The
god Bacchus had nothing like 1t. and
Gambrinus himself would look at it with
envy. 1t is almost universal Every other
man you meet carries bay window about
with him, and some over-developed ones
actually measure two feet from vest but
ton to backbone.
These people live well. They are great
eaters and great drinkers. Every block has
its restaurant and beer garden, and in every
one you can be well fed. Some of the best
restaurants are the cheapest. There Is one
known as "Kempinskfs,' on Lejpsiger
strasse. not far from the corner of Freid-
rich strasse where 1 can get an excellent
dinner for two or three marks. I pay seven
and half cents for soup. twenty
five cents for as much roast goose as
want, and thirty-seven cents for a beef
steak. Salads and sweets are proportion
ately cheap, and everything Is well served
There are many other good restaurants,
some so housed that they would be con-
sidered palatial in the United States. The
hotels have good meals. and altogether one
gets as much for his money here as at any
place l know. 49,
The Little Matter Of Beer.
AS to beer, the Germans make the best
and they know it. There are millions In
vested in beer gardens and beer halls in
Berlin, and their income amounts to mil
lions a year. It is said that million
glasses are drunk every day. and this
means about half million quarts. The beer
glasses here are regulat ed by law, and the
ordinary drink is twice that Of the Unit cd
States. There is a mark near the top Of
every glass made with file to which the
beer must rise without foam, and the Gus
TONER always insists on full glasses.
Beer in Germany takes the place OF
water. l venture there are ten glasses OF
Deer swallowed mere TO every grass OF
water, and also that there are hundreds
Of men who drink on the average some
thing like gallon day. Men, women and
children drink, early and late, and the
total consumption surpasses concept: N.
One of our consuls, of an arithemtical
bent recently made an estimate of the
annual beer bill of the nation. His figures
show that the Germans swallow enough
beer every year to make lake SIX feet
deep and more than mile square, and so
much that 1t will average forty gallons to
every man, woman and child in the coun-
try.
Much of the beer drunken Is Bavarian.
which country is said to make the best
beer of the world. Munich alone ships
nine million barrels every year. and it
drinks more than it ships. The Nurembar-
ger and the Pilsner beers are also l4lgcjy
used and Berlin itself makes an excellent
article. FRANK G. CARPENTER.
Tho Cheanest Teleorans