The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-18

and ever again by the slipping of a sweet, fizzy drink still called cham pagne."
 The police often have raided these nests. Children stationed as look outs have been arrested and forced to miss a number of days at school. Some of the places found it too trou- blesome to remain open, but their closing only deprived the smaller bet tors For the wealthier people so- called betting syndicates" sprang up. Any barber, jobless bookkeeper or clerk could start a syndicate by hiring on office, joining hands with some bar proprietor and promising huge winnings on the races
 Inevitable Crash Comes
 For one-half year the syndicates flourshed. but after they had paid some tremendous winning dividends, the inevitable crash came. There was a panic among the investors and the tide of syndicate prosperity quickly ebbed. But aoove all this, the tide of the gambling spirit persisted
 Now it is the betting machines that are doing a record business. Stenographers, messengers, elevator boys, honest laborers and mari. ct women have all taken to gambh1g. The cook today accepts place with the stipulation that she may go cut for several hours each forenoon. What does she do with this time She makes tour of the betting rooms and from the information re- celved there she bets on racing in the north south and central Europe (which horses and which places she never saw in all her life). Then she returns to the cook stove proud of the internationality of her busi- ness connections.
 If this were a cinema production the next reel would show the Bourse. Wheelbarrel roulette and shady book making are only cheap substitutes. They are too trifling to have said so much about. Really impressive speculation Is only possible at the Bourse The number admitted is limited, but business rages. Big and little banks are smothered under a nile of orders. One day this week there were more transactions than during whole quarter of year formerly
 Industrial and transportation shares. the real value of which the throng of spectators have not the slightest idea, are eagerly traded Tn as prices change and exchange rates fluctuate.
 "snrdines, Fight for Place
 The "sardines'' packed in the ex- change jostle and fight each other urtil only a fair sized pugilist can reach the brokers enclosure, While only the Jack Dempseys among the sardines can actually place their or ders. The army of bank officials ana brokers, busy until after midnight cannot keen up with their work. The exchange has been forced to close for days to catch up, while the oahh directors publicly have sent out word of pessimistic warning, saying that the skyscraper edifice punt up hv the speculators will collapse. The public has failed to heed tisse warn irgs like wild animals who have tasted blood.
 The republicans and the monarch ists for once are united in Jo'h worshin of King Dollar. As the throne of the dollar mounts higher' the crowd surmises something must he doing in the way of increased exports. of an industrial peak, etc. and continues to buy. buy, buy. The dollar may be worth 1o3 marks today. Nothing else is interesting. The monarchist moves in Bavaria, the payment of the last gold billion ,o the entente (one third of which was narrowed on hard terms) whether we can possibly fulfill the Wlesoaoeh agreement delivering yearly lo3'ooo' O00 900 marks worth or gooos .o France, whether dumping won :. arouse the productive world aga,ns' ns--all grows pale beside the pre- vailing passion to get rich.