Mexico Missouri message., 1915-07-01
LETTER FROM EUROPE.
II. j. ShObe Gets Interesting Note
From j. @. Burlxs.
From the Laddonia Herald.
Paris, France, May 8, 1915.

Dear sir:---I have been in London,
Liverpool and Paris for some time
finding out how grain business is car
ried on during war time. 1t has been
selling for less than they pay. They
are waiting for new crops now. II
they come big and are pushed for
sale, markets will break. As far as
l can learn there is no signs of peace,
war looks good for all summer.
All Europe's biggest mills are on
water where they take grain direct
from ocean steamer by suction. The
smaller mills are on rivers or canals
and grain is brought direct to them
from ocean steamers on barges. No
elevators to speak of. A funny sight
is their high wheeled little box cars,
holding about $50 bushels of wheat.
Very little grain is carried by rail.
While Liverpool sends out the quota
tions, London is the big market. Liv-
erpool has option markets about like
st. Louis, while London is all cash.
The Baltic" in London is the same
as our Board of Trade. They have
no blackboard quotations. They get
cable offers from all over the world
and go around (half of them with
silk hats on) and trade quietly, and
only in cargpes. The corn exchange
is where smaller lots are dealt in and
you see samples of grain from all
over the world. All grain over there
is called corn. Thus, Corn Ex-
change" instead of Grain Exchange"
Liverpool quotes per hundred
weight; thus, 13S sd means 1S
shillings and pence per hundred.
One shilling is equal to 24c, one D is
equal to 2 cents. London quotes
per quarter, Paris, per hundred
kilo. 1t requires a set of books to
translate and compare prices. Com
binations of all the markets in the
world make the London prices.
London streets are lot of winding
paths. You are constantly lodging
an old church or the monument OF
some old fellow who ages ago, had
taken lot of men out and killed
lot of other men. There are no tall
buildings, no surface street cars, but
taxis (cheap as our jitneys) and gen
eral traffic is tremendous and all
goes to the left. Paris is more like
our cities, regular streets, a world of
trees, and a beautiful place. In
London you are considered odd if you
do not smoke cigarettes. In Paris
women of all classes insist on leading
little fuzzy dogs around, even in
war time.
Farms are cared for like our
lawns,and littel village will be cud-
died up together, but each home will
have garden, all it's own, with a
rock fence around it. AS yet 1 have
not seen Submarine or Zeppelin. 1
have been where the Germans were
when they were so close to Paris.
Have been within 20 miles of fight
ing line and talk to wounded soldiers
every day. About the only informa-
ton you get is that sit is awful and
they wish it was over" In places
where trenches are so close together,
they are forced to keep changing men
They get so we'll acquainted they visit
and refuse to shoot each other
even after aKing or a Somebody has
told them to-" In small towns the
silence and sadness is more notice
able than in the cities. Everywhere
you see women in mourning and
the mails are full of letters edged
in black. You see officers and sol
diers galore, but the most prominent
of all is the sight of the cross Red
Cross. 1t is making history that
viii remain long after the war is
forgotten.
The papers are full of the Lusi-
tania AFFAIR this morning. 1t is con-
sidered war turning point" here.