The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1922-12-22
DOLLARS TORTURE
|T0MANY GERMANS
Sent by Friends in the United
States, Relatives Hesitate to
Exchange Them.
CROWD BANK LOBBIES DAILY.
Watch Fluctuations in Doubt Whether
They Should Sell or Wait-When
Rumor Of Rise Starts Line
Trims Rapidly.

Berlin.-Moralists seeking to pre-
pare sermons upon the curse Of riches
might find convincing material daily
In the crowded Hobbies of BerlN banks.
| There are gathered the most unhappy
people Of Berlin-the poor with Ameri-
can dollars.
Perhaps there Is nothing more Gov.
| eted today than dollars. All Germany
has literally gone wild owe h desire
to possess them. Imagination : has
placed their value far above their &C.
| tual worth and as a result OF this pal
plating anticipation realization brings
the bitter fear hat the precious dollar
In hand is not buying every possible
mark. The magic coin changes over
night the German who has been rail-
ing at the visitors from countries with
high "~valuata" to a theoretical capital
list hoping that on the day he cashes
his dollar the mark will go utterly to
pot.
Large Sums Sent From America.
And 1t Is the DOR who are now re-
ceiving the coveted currency. Hun
dreds of Germans in America, hearing
Of the crash Of German marks, have
sent checks, drafts and postal orders
for sums from So to $50 to poor rela-
tives. They flock to the banks when
the doors open in the morning, watch
the figures on the bulletin boards an
nouncing the fluctuations of the ex-
change. tremblingly approach the cash
iers and then decide to wait for one
more hour in the hope that the trend
may be upward again. Perhaps the
next hour brings a drop of one or two
points. Panic-stricken the holders Of
small checks besiege the windows to
unload their holdings before there is a
further drop.
A prosperous stranger who has no
dollars TO cash, however, enters. He
rs overheard by a timid seller telling
some friend that he had it straight
from the ministry of nance that the
mark is going to drop heavily in a few
days.
Runners Cause Tortures.
The dollar holders nearest the win
dow swallow rising Jumps in their
threats and the line begins to hin out
rapidly. At this moment the bulletin
board shows an encouraging rise and
the perspiring dollar holders go
through IL living torture. They either
end by cashing their checks for what
ever they can get or by leaving the
bank completely crushed by indeci-
sion. Likely they have lost a half or
a whole days work and still hold their
crumpled checks and their deep deter
to get all the marks possible
for them. If the mark falls the next
day they wait for a still further drop.
If 1t rises they experience a little more
anguish until the tide turns
ba ckward.
Another phase Of the wholesale re-
ceipt of presents from abroad is that
bricklayers and hodcarriers of yester-
day have turned into students of
The pages of financial pa
pers, so strange to the ordinary work
man, now assume the interest of popu
lar novels. They are perused vainly
fors authentic information as to wheth-
er or not the mark is going up or
down on the morrow, In spite of the
TACT that financial representations are
not like those of the weather bureau.
It is futile search, however, and in
the end the holder OF dollars merely
goes deeper Into the mire Of fndecfsion
and In the end learns the u~nhappiness
hat can come from the possession of
he worlds greatest currency