The Morning Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Okla.) 1919-1927, 1922-12-31

Ssssssss sDrluge. Inc men
at the table were
all millionaires. Indeed, each had
n 40 much money that his bills bulged
81 out the satchel beside him. The
:. bets were in millions, and they
played for ten thousand n point. The
game went on with varying fortune,
each backing his hand to the utmost,
winnings to be cashed in at the end
Of the voyage.
At last the cry came that the boat
i was nearing Samara, and they threw
d their cards on the table and began
TO count up. The winner was for
mer Governor Goodrich of Indiana,
who ! venture had acquired his great
skin in cards by his frequent stays
\ at French Lick. His winnings were
Just 100000 rouhles, an amount
which, when | was in Samara during
the great famine of some decades
4 ago. would have equalled more than
thirty million gold dollars. Now, by
the collapse of the Russian currency.
it represents no more than $40, or
1000 cents. At that time each rouble
was worth 81 cents. Now a single
cent equals 10000 roubles, so that
q man is a millionaire If he has 25
cents in his jeans.
At a table in Paris the other night
an American gave q dinner with a
milliOn-rouble note at each plate as
place card, writing the name of
the guest on its face. / have Just
received a letter from Moscow. the
stamp upon which represents 200,-
600 rOubles, or what now equals 5
cents. When / last visited Moscow
could have bought 100000 such
stamps for that sum.
Whisky Bottles rs Savings Banks.
This enormous decline of exchange
not only in Russia but also in many
other European countries, is trying
70 the faith of the peasants, and they
are boarding such moneys as they
] think may survive. Even the French
are afraid of the paper francs, and
me thrifty peasants have begun to
pack away in their wooleh stockings
the new aluminium bronze coins,
which are now issued for the franc
and half-franc. They are worth no
more than the paper currency. but
the people imagine they have in
ulnsiC value.
Baron Korf. a high Russian Off
cial under the car, tells me that
NJ the peasants began to fear tho de-
" cline of the rouble as soon as the
boisheviki started their printing
presses, out they had faith in the
czar roubles and believed that their
value might come back after this
crazy regime had passed away
Therefore they saved them, hiding
the paper in the matched roofs or
digging out a hole under the great
stbrlCk or stone stoves upon which
4 they sleep at night. As time went
on it was found that all the whisky
or vodka bottles, in which that liq-
uor was sold when the car govern
ment had the monopoly for its
manufacture, had disappeared. Those
bottles were OF white glass and of
various sizes. The authorities inves-
tigated and found that the peasants
were stuffing them with car roubles
and burying them. tightly Corked, in
that greatest of safety deposit vaults,
Old Mother Earth. The corks keep
out the moisture. and the peasants
believe that the money will sprout
into crop OF real wealth when nor
malcy returns-to their land.
\ Farm for Blank Paper.
| hear similar stories as TO the
! antics of the peasants in Poland and
] others OF the mushroom republics
which some OF us think may yet be
transformed into sturdy oaks in the
international forest. one relates 70
q peasant who lives not far from
Warsaw, He had offered to sell his
farm for fifty million Polish marks.
Before the transaction was closed he
became alarmed at the way the
government was rolling out new bills
Irom its presses. So he went TO the
buyer and said.
Il am afraid OF this new money,
and l would much prefer TO have
you give me fifty million sheets OF
blank paper. instead"
GO away" said the buyer, who
vas a shrewd, thrifty Jew. "Yo1
are asking twice as much for your
farm" And the deal straightwaS
fell through.
Surprises Even the Lunatics.
My last story is from Austria
where, for several years the krone
has been ION the toboggan," and Is
earryins the country and people 10
financial destruction. II has dropped
10000 points within the past week,
but Is still something under one hun
dred thousand per dollar. When
passed through Vienna long before
the World war every krone was
worth more than 20 American cents
and 100 900 would have equaled over
10000.
The story relates 10 a patient who
mas been Kept for some ten years OF
more in an insane asylum outside
Vienna. He is a man OF wealth, end
ne other day when he escaped he
mad one OF the old 20-krsnen gold
Pieces in his pocket. In his wander
lhgs he met a taxi, and took a lone
Hds. When the chauffeur demanded
As pay the figures on the taximetel
N INUWar.l,.A-a q
& snatic threw up his hands In de
- .pair as he handed over his golC
81 Ieee; and he doubted even his owl
Il Hsanity and was sure OF that Of tn