Evening star., 1921-07-24

were III d no
~ tel or restaurant. gave the
waiter a ten-dollar bili for
your meal and he brought you back
Tor change a heaping plate of scrubby
slittle worn and torn bits Of paper,
much resembling collection of
cigarette coupons carried for weeks
In a small boys pocket. and a half
dozen or so postage stamps? No,
none of the Washington hotels is
likely to speed its parting guest with
SO unattractive a souvenir. This is
not state; of affairs in America.
But Americans, long held up by the
war and it's aftermath. who have
taken this summer to "cross the
pond" and do" the continent or join
the tourist crusade to the battle
fields. will get their fill of the dirty
little scraps Of paper"
The necessity for the aforemen-
TONED arises from the situation of
dearth Of coins in continental
Europe. Recent arrivals from abroad
report that they have Travelled from
one end of France to the other with
out SO much as seeing a single silver
piece. One pilgrim, on returning
mere, had franc wished on him. in
lieu of, twenty-five-cent piece,
shortly after his homecoming, and
remarked that it was the first franc
that he mad seen. since sailing from
New York. more than three months
ago.
Back in the metal age, as every
one knows. the most used coins in
Europe. aside from the coHpers, were
the franc. with a pre-war value of
about 20 cents. and the fifty-centime
piece worth then about 10 cents.
These have been replaced by the
paper money, now commonly spoken
of by tourists as the filthy chits."
used for 25 centimes is very scarce. it
has become the custom to use
| postage stamps as currency rather
than to hand to a customer twenty
or thirty of the big cartwheel cop
pers and have him suffer from back
ache before he can find anything
cheap enough to spend them for.
MANY persons, having heard that
the franc has deprecated uptil
! 1t is worth next to nothing, have
gained the impression that they could
go to Paris and. with the rste of ex-
| change so greatly in their favor. do
| next winters shopping and save
! enough on the difference to pay for
| the trip. This idea is nothing if not
! misplaced brain throb. and might
| prove a total loss to any one think
ing of earning a ton abroad in this
! fashion. The fact Of the matter is
| that just SO fast as the rate of ex-
| change has gone dowp just SO fast
have the prices kept an upward pace.
1 {Rrt1 n
probably ,wo Jumps ahead for Amer
| leans. One of the American automo-
| biles selling for about $500 is re-
ported now to cost about one thou
! sand dollars in good United States
coin Of the realm of Paris, or its
equivalent in francs. no matter what
| the rate of exchange.
with this situation. it can be readily
seen that the ,one-franc bank notes
are not overburdened with value as
/, far as purchasing potentiality is COIL
cerned. 1t is said that handful OF
them would get a bag Of peanuts, il
| they but could be bought there. and
an armful might do in trade for a
good cigar, il good cigars were but
i known in dear old Paree. The re-
suit, of course. can be seen. At every
dealing one accumulates wads OF
| these things and one dare not venture
out without pecks of them on ones
person to cope with the petty trans
actions of the day, the outcome being
| that hunting coats, equipped with the
big pockets for carrying game. as
| well as the hip pocket Of prescribed
/ prohibition dimensions. have become
very popular among the male of the
tourist species, and the old-fashioned
net marketing bag is said to be very
| much in vogue among the women.
! No one as yet has found a really
| practical way of carrying this
French paper money. A wallet is
useless, as none has been designed to
/! date large enough to carry even a
sufficient number with which to ap-