The Washington times., 1921-09-19
By Garrett P. Serviss.
Eminent Astronomer aud Authority
r.. on Subjects Of Scientific o..
Interest," 80,

Eminent Astronomer and Authority
-. ON Subjects Of Scientific O..
e.. Interest. Tito :.
-HNE Of the most Interesting ex-
periences Of the traveller In
France today Is with money.
1t Is again, as in the great revolu-
ton, an age Of paper money. In the
name Of the chamber Of commerce
OF every town Of any consequence in
the whole country. bills are issued
after the manner Of our shin
plasters" during the war Of seces-
sion for sums Of two francs, one
franc. fifty centimes Chalf a france
and twenty-five confines, and these
are current as money in all sorts Of
daily transactions.
The Bank OF France issues also
bills of five francs and ten francs in
addition to those Of twenty. fifty and
q hundred francs, formerly in cur
rent use. Where enough OF the
small paper is not handy, postage
stamps are frequently given In ex-
change.
~ bCuoS OI pEOpOE NlOI1s tlho InHI
which made the great French ca
thedrals so beautiful even to the
uneducated eye, causes the size OF
these bills to bear q relation to their
money value. Smallest. and not
much bigger than some postage
stamps, are the bills Of twenty-five
confines worth in American money,
at existing rates Of exchange. about
two cents). The fifty centime bills
are proportionally larger, and those
of one franc larger still. while the
five-franc bills average five inches
in length, the ten-franc five and q
half and the twenty-francs six, the
breadth being In all cases proper
tional. So, with little practice, one
can distinguish the value OF his bills
in the dark-though 1t 10 not an ad-
visable method.
There is a wonderfully attrac-
tive thing about these bills that ]
am going presently to speak Of.
but first / must point out a risk
that the traveller runs in connec-
ton with them. This arises from
the fact that by no means all OF
them are universally accepted or
legally current, in all parts Of the
country.
have seen Le Havre bills re-
fused in Paris, not because they
were counterfeit, but because the
bills Of the French port did not
go into the French capital. How
over, upon the whole. there In very
little trouble on this account, and
In Dion, where I have been stop
ping. everything goes without
question, and also without regard
to personal appearance for II must
be said that many Of the bills are
raggeder than the raggedest Eaber.
lunzie man that ever suggested q
poem to Robert Burns.
/ have myself spent many min
utes and some ingenuity in patch.
ing up these tempest tossed paper
bulks, TO enable them to make one
more perilous voyage on the trouLa
bled sea OF commerce, but when
relaunched they always sail tri.
umphantly away, laughing at my
unnecessary solicitude.
The peculiarly attractive feature
OF these bills, which makes them
perhaps the finest things Of their
kind ever put forth, IL their arts
Tic quality, combined with most in
teresting historical and local sug.
gestions and reminders. Those
Of the capital are artistic in color
and design--as all French money
always has been-but they are not
specially suggestive OF Paris, e.
cept in q certain spaciousness OF
background that recalls the Palace
dc IL Concords with its surround