Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-10-03

New York worth IS francs 40 CEN
times to the dollar, this $3.50 for
morning coffee and rolls (two
pats of butter and three Jumps
tile lunch and dinner seems about as
,good bet as may be lying loose in
these bad days. The downstairs fur
lnlture, at least, is Ritz elegance. with
1880 pm. in the hall. The attempt
is TO make that sort of house. But
let 1t be reflected that for plain. aver
lage tourists before the war the nor
lmai dollar at sos francs would have
made this IS francs for room and IS
francs for meals a 7o-franc rate. or
VA per day, which is the ratio to
which things will be approaching
again always a little more, as time
goes on.
| everywhere in Brussels the prices
| were otherwise higher than Paris: a
| noS OF race powder. francs so CEN
,lfnes tParis, francs Is centimes)
| auto-taNi fare, As francs impudently
| demanded on the plea of tourist stop
pages when the dial marked 81
| francs, and the hotel doorman bears
| him out; lisle-thread gloves, 12 francs
81 centimes. where Perrin, in Paris.
| asks francs SIS centimes. But, no,
candies are quite cheap Though sugar
is pitilessly rationed); common CO.
iogne water, IL francs so centimes
the liter. as against Is francs mini
mum in Paris, and the Belgian bread,
and its crust melts in the mouth like
cakea (They are buying all their
wheat outside. while the French
economiZe the scraps of home product
pariey, rye, spelter. Indian corn, and
Heaven only knows what not, New
ertheless. in both countries. by re-
Gently renewed decree. it is forbidden
to feed any such bread liable" in
sredlents to cattle, except Indian
corn winch does not mix welL) And
When you move out of Belgium a Bel
gan customs inspector goes through
ihe train. to make sure that nobody
is carrying ham or a cheese or
other food merchandise out of the
realm Yet tsuppose you get it into
francel the French are waiting to
treat this desirable ham like an un-
ueslfapie alien. soak it with duties,
Welgh II, measure it and impound it
until you make 'declaration''
|. Our own State Department gives no
better example. For Belgian and all
european citizens entering the United
states 1t has raised the passport visa
10 S!O-Just for a rubber stamp and
date! In self-respecting retaliation.
Americans entering Belgium paw l25
francs visa, Belgian money, which is
1873 francs so Confines, Paris money
Goodness only knows how many 1873
francs the American tourist of next
summer will be obliged to pay for
each frontier he crosses, when other
governments get their retaliation
working! They are really not ready
for US: My first entire morning at
Brussels was put in on paying and
waiting for the dimension stamp" Of
francs so -centimes on each pass
port-this in addition to the Belgian
visa, which we paid in Paris. AS all
kinds of commercial paper pays this
stamp, painting, sweating throng of
would-be tourists crowded in a mar
row hallway among all the office boys
and girls of Brussels, while the en-
|ploye behind the peek hole called out:
No. 21S75! Of the stubs of day be-
fore yesterday" 1t took exactly two
hours, plus two auto-taxi fares. and
there was just time before lunch to
dash across all Brussels to the French
visa-to quit the country (these
others being to enter). French visa
Ito quit Belgium G. e., to re-enter
France) 10 francs, good for year" );
and they are only getting started 1
| say, our own State Department began
the high prices. Imagine a family of
poor emigrants, say two parents,
grandmother and seven children. 1t