Paragould soliphone., 1921-07-01
Br DOROTHY THOMPSON

There is q market i'll Vienna where it can be done.
 If you are a Philistine you have probably wandered in and out of the place, half a dozen times during a short sojourn in the city without realizing that you were in the most famous ''schieber' exchange in all Central Europe and the Near East. For the Atlantis cafe bears no visi- ble sign to distinguish ii from any other coffee house along the Kings trasse. Only the dealers in illegal traffic have put their cross over it's doors. and If you belong to the famous international or the profi,- teers, beside ,wh1ch the third of Mos COW is harmless as dove, be you Italian. or Serbian, or Hungarian, or German, the Atlantis is the Mecca of your journeys.
 It stands on the busiest Vienna street. across from the great Imperial Hotel. Behind it's plate glass win dows. eandidly open to every passer- by. Is a large room. upholstered in red iesther with comfortably padded benches al6ng the walls and around the posts which support the ceiling. Arm chairs are fitted into coZy hooks and efficient walters trot from table to table. carrying. syphons, filling liqueur glasses, pouring Turkish cof- fee thickly out of little copper mugs. The orchestra, goaded by a temper ameBtal conductor. sighs out the strains of heavy, honey Viennese valse. Altogether typical Vienna cafe.s
 But if--instead of 1. burying your nose in..the Neue Erie Presse or the arbeifer Zeituhg. both of which are handily at your elbow. supported on frames fitted with handles-you look about keenly you will hear strange whisperings and see hands reaching out to each other under cover of the table. and now and then you will see something gleam in transit. Or you will see eager heads bent together over some small package wrapped in tissue paper. and over and over again you will catch one word. repeated in all languages, { .sCombien?" "Quanto?' "Skolko?" "Wie Viel?" ..ffow much?"
 z THE uNINITIATED BARRED
 If you want to do business in the Atlantis you must know the ropes. This is 10 place where you come in, put down yeur money and ask for what you Wssht You would be thrown out if yous6id, with indig- nant protests that this is no shop. but a cafe. No, you must know ex- actly to which table to go in order to dispose of grain, jewels, money, women.
 Yes. even women are bought and sold. so they say. in the Atlantis cafe. Pretty Viennese. with their shoes run down at the heel and their stockings in holes. are offered positions as actresses in Rio Janeiro or Buenos Aires and are contracted for and shipped away. What be- comes of them afterward no one knows. but many hazard a guess.
 When you have seated yourself at what you judge to be the right ta- sble the conversation begins in cryp- tic phrase. Recently man said to another laconically. T have wa sgon."
 The other (equally laconically), "How muchg"
 The first man named his price. 2 < The ssaeoiisi: ''very dear. White or spotted?"
 The first, snorting, White or spotted! Are you crazy?a And he goes away in hurry. He had been trying to sell wheat at the bean table!
 Around the different tables diff sferent nauonalities gather It is mostly Jews who slip watches and FClSdfttie cuStS ana cHdlnS or peaHS from hand to hand at the Jewelry table. Darkeyed and excitable Ital- sians gesticulate in another corner over object dart; and Austrias pie lures coranlies and gobelins change hands around glasses of coffee. The Italians are the noisest and. so a habitue of the cafe assured me. spend more money than all the rest put together. Always at the Italian table are cne or two Italian sol diers- who will be useful in getting goods over the border.
 N PASSPORTS MINUS RED TAPE
 Serbs, Rumanians, Czecho-Slovaki- ans negotiate chiefly in foodstuffs. From them comes the wheat to make the little white rolls which you eat with such pleasure in the famous res taurants, while the rest of Vienna lives on bitter black bread.
 But more underground than the traffic in ofod is the traffic in pass ports. The 'schieber" knows no from fioru Ear fiCa fap fhr,. ca |, d