The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1923-05-27
POTATO FEELINGS
SOLD FOR WOOD
ON BERLIN STREETS
Frank G. Carpenter Gives
Glimpse Behind The
Scenes In Germany
HIRE TAXIS BY ARITHMETIC
Entire German Capital Hasn't
As Many Cars As Any
Small American City

SIItQII HtIICI IVQiI OIly
BERLIN. May 26.-Berlin is new
city under its republican government.
1t Is half again as large as 1t was in
1914. but it is not SO clean and we'll
kept. Under den Linden, the sacred
highway of the Kaiser, where no one
was allowed to smoke or speak loud
ly at certain hours of the day and
where a man was liable to be ar
rested if his dog barked after dark.
is now one of the noisiest streets of
the capital. Students and hoodlums
half drunk go through it at night
singing their songs and 1t is thronged
with plebeian traffic by day.
Seen On The Street.
In pre-war times the man who
dropped a scrap of paper on the side
walk In any part of the city was
made to pick it up by policeman
and warned that a second offense
would mean his arrest. Today Berlin
is Uttered with trash which waits
hours for municipal cleaners. In the
past there were no Migrants. Now
there are beggars on every street
corner, and some have their regular
stands on the sidewalks. The blind
so along led by dogs. and the
poor too proud to beg, who walk
through the streets searching the
roadway for crusts of bread or any
stray thing of value.
] saw a hunchback this morning
poking with stick in the gutter. He
picked up what looked like a piece
of cardboard and ate it. 1t was a
chunk of brown bread. 1 gave him
100 marks which is about half a cent.
He was SO dumbfounded he could not
utter his thanks. | gave the same
amount to a beggar a few steps far
thpr xUb
but the words came out with hic-
cough and smell which showed he
was drunk. My next adventure was
with fine old gentlewoman who
was selling newspapers. She had
seen me giving the beggar the money
and said it was a crime to patronize
such people for there were plenty of
jobs for any man who wanted to
work.
Going through a side street l saw
man peddling out sticks of wood to
crowd of women and children who
mad bags and baskets on their backs
or in their hands. They came up in
order and emptied their burdens, each
taking so many sticks in exchange.
Coming closer | saw that the pile of
stuff on the street was potato peel
ings, and that the man was buyl e
them with the wood 1 asked him
Whdt iLc uiu Will Tie peellnRS. lie
replied that he had pigs on his farm
in the country nearby, and that he
brought in this wood every week to
exchange 1t for slop for his pigs. He
gives sack of wood for sack of
potato scraps and the wood in each
sack wuld just about fill small
kitchen stove. l photographed to
man and the woman buying and sell
ing.
A little farther on was a meat
market with booths on the street.
One butcher was cutting off the odds
and ends of the meat he served to
his customers and throwing them
down at his feet. AS looked a
we'll dressed woman with a shawl
tied around her head stepped up be-
hind and grabbed some of these odds
and ends and put them into her bag.
The butcher objected. He said:
See here my good woman, l want
that meat. Put it back"
She did so with blush, and her
mouth formed to a whistle. She
called out, LUX. Lux! Lux" pre-
tending to be whistiing her dog. She
of minutes perhaps and then pushed
her way out of the crowd and
walked off very fast. She was
ashamed to have anyone think she
wanted the meat for herself and the
dog pretense was evidently made up,
ioi as sHe uepdi leu there Was no ooS
in sight.
Hiring Taxis BY Arithmetic.
l here took taxi and drove to
several other places about the city.
had the car several hours and
when l looked at the meter saw
that it registered eight marks or
what before the war would have
been 81 | paid the man $500 marks,
the amount being arrived at by null
tiplying the figure registered on the
meter by 1900. Not long ago the
it was 800, and it has steadily risen
as the mark has gone down. AS it
is a ride which before the war would
have cost So now costs SO cents.
The cab fares are so low that riding
is cheaper than walking. Indeed l
the time, and if it stands idle an
hour it does not much matter.
Speaking of taxicabs, those of Ber-
lin are excellent and the service is
good. The city has comparatively
few, however, and this is SO of all
short on such transportation.
l have looked up the statistics, and
in the whole republic there are less
than sixty-one thousand automobiles.
This means about one car per thous-
and, striking contrast with the
United States which has more than
one automobile for every twelve
people. Hamburg which is as big
as Detroit has less than 5000 motor
cars, and Bavaria with seven million
population has less than 5000 auto
mobiles. Notwithstanding Munich, it's
capital, is about equal to Boston in
size.
Street Traffic In Berlin.
The traffic of big city is good
indication of its prosperity or the
reverse. On this basis Berlin is
doing practically no business. 1t has
not as many motor trucks as a city
of fifty thousand in the States and
private automobiles are almost UNI
known. There are no private cars
parked on the streets and the traffic
policeman has practically nothing to
do in the most crowded sections.
went last night to the Scala, the
biggest vaudeville theatre. II was
raining and l took a taxi from my
hotel. / arrived in the height of
the crowds coming in but my taxi
came right to the door and while
] paid my fare, there were not a
dozen vehicles including taxicabs and
up or going awaw. / dismissed my
taxi supposing that l could easily
get one at the close of the show.
But there was not taxi in sight
when the crowd or several thousand
came out and put up their umbrellas
and only four private automobiles
arrived while 1 waited.
Their are a large number of horse
cabs still in use here and human
muscles fights with gasoline for the
delivery of goods. There are almost
as many men and women pushing
and pulling carts as there are motor
cars and horse drawn vehicles
Sometimes men and women work
side by side hauling their loads
through the streets. Sometimes the
man pulls and the woman pushes
and il is not uncommon to see doE