The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-06-11
Small Manufacturers and Dealers Have Become Rich
 From War Profits
SPENDING MONEY FOR ALL KINDS OF THINGS
Diamond Merchants and Jewellers De- clare Dividends-Impossible to Get Seat in Expensive Cafes With
 out Reserving in Advance

Berlin, May -(Correspondence of the Associated Press )-"Ailes besetzt" Gall fulD said a gorgeously uniformed indi- vidual standing before the street door of the big Friedrichstraesse cafe. The man to whom he spoke had no intention of going in, but he happened to look to- ward the door as he passed and the uni formed one had parroted forth his one phrase so many times that the simple glance in his direction sufficed to evoke it again.
 The passerby, however, grew curious, and made a trip through the better parts of the city This is what he found:
 Three better class cafes with from 10 to 3o persons standing outside or in the entrance way, waiting for table to be- come vacant
 All other wine or beer restaurants wis., ited so full that only in one could a free table for two persons be found. Two others where the doorkeeper announced in advance "Alles Besetzt."
 The observer had for months encoun- tered difficulty in finding a table in a leading restaurant having more than 500 tables Tn one of the places Inter den Linden the head waiter had been graci-
  ise not to retain the table longer than an hour. In another Unter den Linden restaurants he had found that 1t was all but impossible to eat without reserving table in advance. And these two places are the most expensive once in all Berlin.
 WEALTH FOR MANY
 The condition is symptomatic. War, which brings poverty and misery to so many. brings wealth to others. Many persons who had been struggling along with barely more than the necessaries of life for years have grown wealthy all most over night. And they are spend- ing, spending lavishly, spending care lessly. Berlin has become the City of the Spepders.
 The crowds that fill the better class places go there in spite of the fact that everything costs more than before the war. Beer is dearer. Even coffee has increased in price. The still considerable stocks of the highest grade French cham pagneS are finding a bigger sale than ever before, in the face 2 price in- crease of four to five marks a bottle. A prominent German champagne firm re- gently declared a dividend thrice greater than that of the preceding year. It was only dividend contributed by the spen- CTS.
 Caviar cost from IS to 24 marks pound in peace times in Berlin. Until the re- cent prohibition of the further import of non-indispensable articles put an end to the business vast quantities of As- trachan Caviar were being sold for prices upwards of ? marks. Similar conditions existed as to other luxuries. Dealers in fine porcelains, oriental rugs, bronzes and antiques generaiiy are doIng flourishing business. There are almost no really fine rugs left among the stocks of the Berlin dealers. None can be se- cured b yimport and the spenders have bought up all that were on hand A Berlin resident went recently to one of the leading auction houses in the hope of securing an old Turkish rug at a req sonable price. It sold for 20 per cent more than would have been realized in peace times. The same was true of other