Der Nordstern. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1874-1931, 1922-11-30

Cathedral across the Rhine greet us
for al few minutes and soon we alight
In the big hall Of the Cologne railway
station, stiff from eight hours confine-
ment in the crowded railway compart-
ment. "a mass Of humanity throngs the
depot and the wide open place leading
Ito the Cathedral, where people from
all civilized countries Of the world a
be heard speaking their respective
languages. International Cologne!
English troops occupy the city and
surrounding towns, s%entinels keep
guard in front of various public build
ings, hotels, ETC., inhabited by English
Officers and generals. The troops have
their own schools, theaters. restau-
rants, etc., also a bureau for housing
strangers in the city. It often hap
pens that hundreds of travellers can
not be placed for the night, SO acute
is the housing problem in consequence
of the war, the low rate of money and
the occupation. The streets of the
business part of the city are ever
lcroWded with soldiers and civilians
from many lands. In the department
stores buyers abound who find it ridic-
nlously cheap to procure German
goods of every description and of the
very best workmanship.
We manage to wedge through the
masses and find the exchange. An
American dollar brings IS marks; la
ter in the eason the mark dropped to
half a cent, in November even to less
than one-third of a cent, therefore a
decline in value from "a cents before
the war to one-third of a penny. No
wonder many Germans have given up
their idea of thrift and turned to ex-
t%ravagance!
As the money is all paper marks,
its value constantly changing, so that
in a weeks time it may be worth only
half Of what it now represents, it is
the slogan of not a few: Spend it,
while it's still good! Why saw up pa
per to pay enormous taxes when you
never know what YOU paper will be
worth tomorrow? And then, these peo-
pie have constantly before them the
bad example of the numerous for
eigners, flooding, as it were the coun-
try and having the exchange in their
favor, and of the "Schieber," or Ger
man profiteers, who have made money
out of the val and the revolution, all
Swelling their unjustly acquired for
tunes. It is very d~emoralizing. All
over the towns, in the occupied terri
tory especially, a new way of making
money has sprung up: Open a "Wech-
selstube,' an exchange. Many a cigar
shop has become a bucket-shop. The
large banks give the best rate of ex-
change, but they close at 1 P. M. The
crowds in the banks between IL and
| p. NJ. each day is enormous sad
iAC1SSO1 AuuCCuAlA AlOOClH% OIuld COu-
ditions, but, as so many others, a con-
sequence of human nature having been
weakened by the strain of war.
For a single room in the Kolping-
House the cost per night was only 20
marks, about 80 cents. We were curl
GUS to see what the breakfast would
be like. It consisted of one cup of
black coffee and one roll of white
bread. A pinch of sugar for our cof-
fee and a taste of butter for our bread
were extras. White bread is in Berlin
and other cities still rationed three
years. after the war. Milk one hardly
ever sees; the French requisitioned
most of the COWS, so that there is just
about sufficient milk for the young
children. This rigid restriction, i'm
posed on a defeated people by pro-
fessedly Christian nations, remains
still in force in the third year of
peace. The results are to be seen in
the children's and o%rthopedic clinics.
There is also a dearth of sugar and
butter, and meat is very rare on the
tables OF millions of these people. The
tablecloths even in, the best hotels are
made of paper. Postwar Germany has
no linen to spare, such was the de-
mand for surgical dressing during the
war. Many other things are lacking in
this impoverished country.
Having visited cologne's grand Ca
thedral, some of the other beautiful
churches, in which this great city
abounds, and a number of interesting
historic places, we proceed southwark
into the territory of occupation, thru
Bonn, the seat Of the famous Universe
ty, now occupied by French troops,
along the beautiful Rhine, past Seven
Mountains with numerous old quaint
towns Nesting at the foot Of vine-clad