Evening star., 1921-05-22
GERMANYSTARv|NG
AND SQUANDER|NG
Race Track Cleans Millions,
While Many Skimp for
: One Cigarette.
BY MIRIAM TEICHNIsR.

the Oldest and. though old fashioned
one of the best in the city. This
morning came frock-coated gentle
man to the breakfast room with a
long. cylindrical object wrapped in
oiled paper This turned out to
be large sausage. from which
the gentleman proceeded to cut him
self several slices. after which he
wrapped it with junction in its oiled
paper kimono From the hotel. he
ordered only bread and coffee.
Another man appeared. apparently
bundieleSS, but, in I'll" abr'& : !
waiter. two eggs came suddenly 10
view on the table. 1t was so uneX-
pec;cd that one looked about invnl-
unfairly for Il hen. but there was no
hen No agency other than the mans
own hand had laid them there. They
were hard boiled eggs. and they re-
freshed their possessor so sufficiently
that he was constrained TO order only
bread and coffee.
Little tin jars of butter apneYr ~ -
ically: so do coffee cakes and rolls.
or which hotels boast none. This hab-
1t or picnicking. with the hotel or
coffee house furnishing the service
and minimum of the food, has al
ways. ii appears, been more or less d
German custom. But it IS being car
ried to unheard lengths since the be-
ginning OF the wartime food short
age And there's reason in it,
Eggs and Cigarettes HiEh-
An egg in shop. now that it is
spring. costs about one mark, 30
pfennig. And two cooked eggs in a
hotel bring a bread-and- coffee break
fast costing marks up to Is marks.
The total saving is 8 marks. which
is the price of half a dozen cigar
cites These used to cost few pfen-
Zig apiece. The German youth buys
them one at a time these days. or. if
GXtT2V3 three 0r
1our of them in little paper sack
So the marks saved are so many
cigarettes gained. Which applies to
saving all down the line.
And. on the other hand. there's the
German who doesn't save his marks.
nor yet his 20-mark notes. nor his
fffties- Lieut.. Col. James Longstreet.
American liaison officer. British army
OF the Rhine. remarked mildly the
other day that he had to change his
Germans who spend their evenings
In carbarets and cafes drinking
champagne. kept me awake all night
with their roistering homecomingS
All OF which is perfectly true. There
are Germans who are doing an eff
cient bit of drinking these days with
champagne at from 1O5 to 260 marks
a bottle. They< are just as much
part of the picture as the mark-sav-
ing German. But they're not all of it.
Many of the cafe revelerS are. more
over, drinking Rhine wine at from
80 to 20 marks the bottle. and some
Sit all evening over to mark
liquor.
Opera and Theaters Crowded.
There are. too. the opera and thea
ter-going Germans. First parquet
tickets at the Cologne opera cost so
marks and second parcuet 40. and
you must buy your seats four days
ahead. The crowd. when you look it
over: does not appear to be the
schrieber hoi-polloi that the average
high-class German insists it is. 1t
seems to be nice young men. taking
nice young girls. and respectable.
plush headed tradesmen taking re-
spectab ble plump bodied wives.
There are some of them who eat
rye bread and sausage sandwiches
as they sit on the upholstered seats
OF the grand promenade and watch
the opera-gofhg world gravely pass
Ing by. two by two. like animals into
the bit OF brown paper in which the
sandwiches were wrapped and put
it back into@ handbag or pocket
And there are others who go into
the opera restaurant in the long
pause between the acts-opera be-
dine or sup before going-and order
wine and good meal. There is
almost no evening dress, and there
10 a prevalence of white shirt waists
and dark skirts.
There are. too. French officers and
their wives. and Belgian officers
ditto. and there are French and Eng
lish and Belgian officers with women
who are not their wives.
Her Guests Emotional.
As a general proposition it seems
safe to say that the opera-going Ger
man is still plentiful enough to All
but the two German young women
I took with me last night had not
been to the opera in several years.
One sat on either side of me. and they
wept copiously while a 110-pound
Mario made love to a 200-pound Tosca
until I fully expected to find myself
mildewed with the damp of their emo
tion. There are. ii seems. compensa-
tions in all, privations.
The Cologne Post. newspaper pub
lished by the British forces on the
Rhine, demands. in recent issue:
who says there is no money in Ger
many? Sunday last. the first day
of the Cologne race meeting, the
enormous sum of 3.754.000 marks
passed through the totalisator. This
gate money. At 10 per cent il will
easily be seen that the government
netted nice little sum of over a
third of a million marks. And similar
racing events are going on all over
Germany"
This British army on the Rhine has
not only it's own newspaper but it's
own theater. where ii gives preten-
tious productions. ranging all the way
from musical comedy to The Pass
nard Shaw's plays and The Merchant
Of Venice" 1t has its clubs and it's
canteens. and its organized sports
and its dances-there are British
canteen girls in khaki. and secre-
taries and stenographers, to say
nothing of wives.
Few British Marry Germans.
Ofhcially. British soldiers. like
Americans. do not fraterniZe with the
erstwhiie enemy of either sex. Actu-
ally. however, the foyer OF British
mess in the heart of the city is
crowded every evening with young
women who may or may not be wear
ing wedding rings, presented by SOL
diers whom they are awaiting to ac
company home. Only 249 British SOL
diers have married German girls dur
ing the time of the British occupa-
ton.
II this same mess there Is. every
evening. young pianist who hailed
originally from the German Tyrol.
Amiabiy. albeit bit patronizingly.
he plays jazz and raStime as per re-
quest. But X some aspiring soul asks
him for Beethoven or Mozart or Wag-
ner or Bach he leaps with joy, he
caresses the keys and the piano sings.
The president of the mess discovered
him one night performing IN a Ger
man restaurant, where he played for
his supper plus thirty marks a day.
(Miners and factory workers earn
from fifty-six to seventy) VIII YOU
come and play for our mess for fifty
marks and three mealsc" uuerfed the