Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-12-21
'HOT AIR" CHRISTMAS
is OUTLOOK IN PARIS
Sterling Heilg Writes of Scarcity of Coal
in French Capital and High Prices
of FoodstuHs.
PARIS. December II. 1919.

PARIS. December II. 1919.
T is called the -hot-air" Christmas
because there is none.
1t will always be remembered
as the ''hot-air" Christmas, be-
cause there is so much of it.
The American Army. departing
sold its entire coal stocks to the
French army. reserving. up to an
(. ESTIMATED maximum. what our troops.
(. officers and functionaries might need
I until they should sail. And when you
rent rooms from French family.
:, how can you forbid the kids to warm
4 their poor little bones in your cir
(. cumambient hot air?
r Such were the lucky kids in France
up to mid-Novem when the -.
I. N. c. discovered that the dumps were
/. melting-melting in lone fields-the
Z only solids that can melt in degrees
:. centigrade- Also. the maximum had
Z, been depassed. So the lucky American
I. officers in France became those whose
4 coal orders got delivery; but the
q lucky kids remain Cor become)
7 those whose families have the coal
in mid-December.
Z. The other kind of hot air is like the
VEOIillSe VI the SldI--d III pCaih Va
!. sorrow watches to behold. distinct,
(. but distant. clear. but. oh, how cold,
y The Partisan Stove.
* Lucky Parisians are making Christ
mas cheer by following the one
!, heated stove from room to room. 1t
:. is on wheels.
Z. A million of these rolling stoves. in
various models. cheered Partisan mats
! before the war, and for is francs eX-
/, ira, you can now obtain transform
I, er, permitting them to burn wood-if
you can get the wood
N 1t is a slow burner of anthracite or
\ coke Cat a pinch). peculiarly appeal
:, ing to Partisan economy and polished
I hardwood floors-with rugs to be
!: kicked aside. not carpeted-for roll
!, ing. A tight iron stovepipe end, quite
!. short, projecting from the back, forms
!. part of the rolling stove. And when
I. you push your stove up to the fire
: place. the stovepipe end fits snugly
:, into a corresponding pipehole OF the
sheetiron fireplace curtain, which
comes Zone for each room. II you
want it, as a necessary and adjust
able accessory to fit with a strong
spring any open fireplace
:. You roll your stove up to 1t, ma
neuver it's pipe end into the snug
oval pipehole which awaits 1T. and
clicq! just like coupling self-coupling
freight cars-your rolling stove
q
burns like the imrnovable old-timer.
When you need heat in another
room you TRANQUILITY pull your stove
away from that click!-the
lid of the chimney's pipe-hole snaps
shut with a little spring Deity, you
clap a hermetic iron lid, equally oval
and rather heavy, onto the iron pipe
end of the back of your stove ITO
keep the carbon dioxide at nome TOT
the trip and. whoop. you're on at
I,o
An average chambermaid can hike
the red-hot stove through rooms and
corridors at eleven miles per hour.
It never drops a single coal to Durn
holes through the floor.
1t was this slow-burnfng. rapid
transit type of stove which asphyxi-
ated lola and his wife. you will re-
member. But such tragedies are not
the necessary sequence OF Indulgence,
as a thousand doughboys of the Paris
that there are SO many people still
alive in Paris.
5 A million of them? Sure. in place
Now, you know why everybody is
crying for Just little coar in Paris.
All the little wonder needs is coal.
In our street this winter most chill
dren warm themselves by taking ex-
ercise. 1t is an odd sight-the poor,
pale tots, all having grand time,
with faces like a funeral. They run,
silent. grave, with never a smile or
Eiggle, never a laugh or squeal. 1t
is no laughing matter. 1t is to keep
warm. - $780,.
OF evenings mamma. spreads the
coal cards on the center table and
7 they all sit and look at them. snug
and cory, in their furs Cf they have
furs).
Generally IT is in the kitchen. "a be-
cause it is the smallest room. and
IL hac
regularly little charcoal grilling
place in which you can burn coal dirt
without it's falling through the crate
and getting lost. The cards call for
coal, mine-run, unsifted. But, say
mammas. it is sifted-the wrong side
of the sitter.
No coal without cards.
The French government has taken
coal away from commerce. tempo
rarfly and is dividing it up equally
among those who can get il.
The cards call for coal incumbering
French docks and mine dumps in
mountains. Also coal promised by
the Belgians, English and Americans.
Also, coal owed by the Germans in
wretched compensation for their de-
the north France mines CATER beg
sgfng for armistice and on armistice
smorningD for the sole purpose of
putting France to this misery for five
years TO come w men you redO Luuen-
DORIS crook pleadings. remember this
dark, calculating malice.
z. OF course, there is some coal; only
cars and locomotives lack to bring it.
There are cars and locomotives, only
the lines are too crowded to make
room for them There is room on the
lines. only they have been weakened
and worn by intensive traffic of the
war so dangerous for such intensive
use in peace. The lines are quite
safe only there are no men to crew
the trains. There are men to crew the
trains, lines-for other traffic. Other
traffic could make room for them
only it is cheaper to bring coal by
canal boat There are plenty of canal
boats. only they are being used by
factories and utilities. The factories
and utilities have no canal boats. be-
cause-because-oh. well. there has
got to be a break somewhere.
Thus the children Of France SILVER
In a hot-air Christmas.
The promise of the star.
Homes for Children.
We may have to billet children on
you"
Say eight or ten kids. four hours
per day. to keep them warm"
So Speaks the ward mayors adjoint
So the story runs the street. Those
who have fires will have six children
each wished on them part of each day
after school hours.
Would it not be simpler to keep the
schools heated till bedtime? Yes, but
that requires coal also
You understand. clean kids and par
ents, real nice folks with money In
bank, whose only sin is that some
body stole their coal (They think it's
U.S. with our dandy rollerO
- hnH In