Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1921-07-25
ATLANTIS CAFE
RENDEZVOUS OF
THIEVES, SPORTS
Famous Coffee House Be.
comes Center of Smuggling
and Crime.

VIENNA, July cJ.-Do You want to sell
a handful Of jewels or a wagonload Of
grain-and no questions asked? There
is a market in Vienna where it can be
done
If you are PhiHstiue you have prob
ably wandered in and out Of the place
half a dozen times during a short so
jOurn in the city without realizing that
you were in the most famous "sehieter'
exchange in all Central Europe and the
Near East. For the Atlantis cafe bears
no visible sign TO distinguish it from any
other coffee house along the Riugstrasse.
Only the dealers in illegal traffic have
put their cross over its door. and If you
belong to the famous international az the
proitecrs, beside which the Third OF Mos
COW Is harmless a. a dove be your Ital-
ian. or Serbian. OF Hungarian. or German,
the Atlantis is the Mecca of your jour
neys.
II stands on the busiest Vienna street,
across from the great Imperial Hotel.
Behind Its plate glass windows caudidly
open - every passerby, is a large room.
upholstered in red leather, with com
fOrtably padded benches along the walls
and around the posts which support the
ceiling Arm chairs are fitted into coy
hooks, and efficient walters trot from
table 10 table. carrying Syphous filing
iiqueur glasses. pouring Turkish coffee
thicbiy out of little copper mugs. The
orchestra, goaded by a tomperamental
conductor, signs cut the strains Of
heavy, honeysweet YienneSe valse. Alto
gcther a typical Vienna cafe.
But if-instead Of buryi1c your nose in
the Neue Erie PreSse or the Arbeiter lei
tung. both of which are haudily at your
elbow, supported on frames fitted with
handles-you look 9bout you koenly you
will hear strange whisperinSs ard see
hands reaching out to each other under
cover Of the table, and now and then you
will see something CLEAN In transit. or
you will see eager heads bent together
over some small package wrapped in
tissue paper and over and over again you
viii catch one word. repeated in all Ian
guagcs. "Combien :" "Quarto:' "Skol-
kof' VIE Vielf" How much3'
THE USISITIATED
BARRED.
If you want to do business in the At
lantis you must know the ropes. This
IS 10 place where you come in, put down
your money and ask for what you want.
You would be thrown out if you did, with
indignant protests that this is 10 shop,
but a cafe. No. you must know exactly
to which table to go in order TO dispose
Of grain, Jewels. money, women.
Yes, even women are bought aud 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 Jane
irO or BuenOs Aires and are contracted for
and shipped away. What becomes of
them afterward no one knows, but many
hazard a guess.
When you have seated yourself at what
you judge to be the right table the. con
veTsation begins in cryptic phrase. Re
emily a man said to another laconically:
Il have a wagon
The other equally laconlcally), How
much :"
The first man named his price.
The second: Very dear. White or
spotted!"
The first. snorting. white or spot
ted, Are you crazy?" And he goes away
in a huff. He had been trying to sell
wheat at the bean table,
Around the different tables different
natiOnalities gather. 1t is mostly Jews
who slip watches and cigarette cases and
chains Of pearls from hand to hand at
the jewelry table. Dark-eyed and ex-
citable Italians geSticulate in another cor
ner over objects dart, and Austria's pic
lures, ceramics and gObelins change
hands around glasses of coffee The
Italians are the nOisiest and, so a habitue
Of the cafe assured me. spend more
money than all the rest put together. Al
ways at the Italian table are one of two
Italian SOlQiprS-WbO will he uSoful in
getting goods over the border.
PASSPORTS MINUS
RED TAPE.
Serbs, Rumanians, Czecho Slovakians
negotiate CHIEFLY in foodstuffs. From