The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-02-15

THE BIRMINGHAM AG with sl.5O0 a year. or any other foreigner
 with the equivalent. can live with his
 family in a big apartment in good
 street, keep two or three servants. eat
 as well as it is possible to eat in Ger
 many, clothe himself tolerably, amdse
 himself violently. and in general, live
 in what Europe usually calls an upper
 middle class way. That is why, from countries with high exchanges, especially
 from Scandinavia. Denmark and Switzer- land people are flocking to Berlin. Rus
 sans also, flock there; mostly men who
 have escaped from soviet Russia with the equivalent of, say, 5000. On this they
 could live tolerably in Stockholm or Copenhagen for a year; after that they would starve. By coming to cheap Ser lin they see themselves secured against starvation, and guaranteed high comfort | for at least five years.
 When an American travels to Berlin via Copenhagen he gets his first sur prise For his first-class ticket from Warnemuende, on the Baltic, to Der lin, which is about 200 miles, he pays 70 marks, which is equivalent now to about sl.40 When he reaches Berlin he drives in a taxi with all his baggage to the Hotel Adlon. let us say, distance of about one and one-half miles, for marks, which is 70 cents. His room in the hotel. Berlins best, costs him p marks, which is 50 cents: and his supper before going to bed costs him somewhat over half a dollar.
 Here is his bill Soup. $50 marks--7 cents; portion of roast goose (one eats goose eternally in Beriin), 2 marks-24 T1,o a1, 10 cents: half bottle of wine, s marks 16 cents Total for a good plain meal with wine in a first-class hotel, 57 cents If. gratfied by this amazing cheapness he tips the walters a whole marks lo | cents) he is thanked profusely and se- eretly despised for an ostentatious, igno- rant millionaire.
 But only millionaires live at the Adlon. The average permanent foreign resident lives in a pension, boarding house, where he spend, for a days board and lodging, the price of a hair cut in New York. Qncidentally a hair cut in Berlin costs cents).
 APARTMENTS FOR S70 A YEAR Keeping house in Berlin today costs an eighth tenth or a twelfth of the price of keeping house in New York. A good- sized apartment in a good-class street can be rented for s7O year. For this l you get six large rooms two servants rooms, two bath rooms, large balcony, possibly a roof garden, steam heating and perhaps an ice chest.
 l Next you start to acquire domestic l servants Before the war they cost about | 10 marks month, which was equivalent | to $10 now they cost 75 marks, which is 1 S150. Taken together, the wages of two l servants will cost you $S5 year Ihe cost of gas for cooking will be at most | 40 marks a month which is 80 cents-or say s10 year Electric light. averaging 1 winter and summer, will cost 50 marks
 month, or about T year. All this VIII l be on scale upon which in Amerlca | only relatively wealthy people live; ana
 the whole thing will so far not run up 10
 more than $130 & year.
 ] Having heard of the appalling fooo i conditions all over Germany, the Tor 1 eigner without wealth who comes to Berlin with the ambition to live like ] millionaire naturally feels little doub'- | And in fact, many food products are scarce. meat and butter are rationed out | in insignifcant quantities-meat at oniy half pound a week and butter at haif an ounce. For native Germans prices are high; for foreigners they are ridicu- lously low.
 1 One hound of meat costs marks, ! cents. 1 pound of bread costs 50 pfen- l nigs. cent; 1 pound of butter 1 marks fl cents; eggs. marks each,
 4 cents; pound of best apples, 2.oO
 marks , cents i pound of jam. marks, cents. Best German cham pagne, 29 marks, 5S cents bottle' 1 Rhine wines, 20 to 16 cents bottle; | Moselle wines, 20 cents to Is cents 1 bottle.
 But all who can afford it buy much more than the rationss They buy things which are not rationed or price,
 | 1a1 n
 l fish. or they buy from the Illicit l trader the so-called "Schleichhandler," 1 who sells meat, butter and other foods il, excess of the lawful ration But even food bought at the exaggerated prices of the "Schleichhandler, who 1 has to make his profit and cover ms 1 risk of being fined or sent to jail, is | far cheaper than in other European l countries. Eggs are inst half the price | of eggs in Copenhagen. Denmark IS 1 the worlds greatest butter country,
 but butter costs there "A cents pound Butter bought from the Berlin | "Schleichhandler" costs 24 marks,
 which is 4S cents pound. He charges | for good beef 15 marks, or 30 cents, l pound.
 PARADISE FOR THEATREGOERS | In Berlin the foreign pauper can go l to a theatre every day and pay out | much less than SlnSle lledtle Nl9it
 would cost him in New York. The 1 best seats in the best Berlin theatres l cost from 24 to 30 cents A box for i five persons costs s1.70. The best seats 1 in the best picture shows cost around ! cents; in inferior shows they cost | cents, sometimes less
 1 The morning and evening editions of l the Berliner Tageblatt, Vossiche Zei- tung and other Berlin newspapers are
 | delivered at your house for cents a l month: and the colored comic papers