Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-01-02
By PAUL SCOTT MOWRER.
Cablegram to The Evening star ano
Chicago Daily News. Copyright l8A1.

Chicago Daily News. Copyright, 1919.
PARIS. France, December 3o.-The
stars and Stripes the Army paper,
publishes the following mildly mel
ancholy letter from a member OF the
American expeditionary force in Arch
angel Russia:
1--WE were sent to this part or the
world to quell bolshevism and guaro
the northern lights. We are SO lar
north the doggone sun works only
when he feels SO inclined, ana IN
that way is like everything else IN
Russia. The moon isn't so particular.
She comes up. usually backwards at
any time day or night in any part OF
the sky. Having no regular schedule
she often gets lost and will still be on
the job at noon. Yes, we are SO Tar
north that thirty-six degrees below
zero will soon be tropical to US. They
have to build fires around the COWS
before they can milk them.
And It's a though Town"
This is n tough town. There are
269,S31 inhabitants. of whom 61.S2s
are human and 20S.502 are dogs-dogs
of every description from poodies 10
St. Bernards and from wolf hounds to
halfbreed dachshunds, which are half
German and half bolshevik and look
the part.
The wind whistles across the Dvina
river like the Twentieth Century lin
tied passing Podunk. The snowfiakes
are as numerous as the retreatfng Ger
mans were in France few weeks ago.
Confines, sous and francs may be hard
to count, but did you ever hear of ru-
bles and kopecks? A kopeck Is worth
one-tenth of a cent and there are 100
of them in ruble. Thus rube is
worth a dime. Ordinarily a ruble is
equal to about so cents.) To make
matters worse, all the money is paper,
coins having gone out of circulation
since the mixup. A kopeck is the size
of a postage stamp and looks like a
cigar certificate. a 25-ruble note re-
sembles porous plaster and a 100-ruble
note looks like the Declaration Of Inde-
pendence.
The Waitress Understands, Too.
when a soldier in search of meal
enters a restaurant he says to the
waitress, 'Barishna sakajreetyeh bif-
sick pozhalyste, which means An
order of beefsteak, lady. please
means girl. Until young lady is
married she is always addressed as
barishna.' She will answer the hun
CRY customer with Yah ochen SOFA
laylu shto tyest yestnik pripasov
syechs' "a simple home cure for lock-
jaw. meaning, I am sorry, sir. but
we are right out of food today He
will try other places. and if lucky is
apt to stumble across a place where
one can get something to eat, but
when he looks at the bill of fare he
learns that it will cost about $3.50 for
a sandwich and cup Of coffee. and he
beats it back to the barracks.
Washington Car Conditions There.
Every time we get on street car
we have to count out sixty kopecks
for carfare, and most of us would
rather walk than be damned into the
two-by-four buses. Before boarding
a car a passenger usually hunts UP a
couple of five-gallon milk cans. a
market basket or two and bag of
smoked behring's. SO that they will get
their kopecks worth out of the ride
besides making the atmosphere nice
and pleasant for the rest of the pas
sengers.
eff you should meet soldier walk
ing down the street with his nose
apparent contempt it would be wrong
to think that he was conceited. for il
the truth be known he has probably
just got his shirt back from the
washerwoman, who used fish oil in