San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-03-05

| avoid the new rich, have returned.
| giving the big hotels the touch OF
| class" that was necessary.
Seichs, drawn by sleek horses,
| meet the trains. Obsequious pOrterS
! tuck fur rugs about your legs and
I inform YOU that the fare to the hotel
is 10000 kronen. The road winds III
through evergreen roads; bells jingle
pleasantly; the sun is high and Their"
is a great, peaceful quiet. Semmer-
ing seems infinitely withdrawn from
the lowlands where harrassed cities
read ten papers n day 10 know all
the nightmare details of the war in
the Ruhr: troop movements in Tur-
key and Thruce. speculations as to
the dreaded plans of the Red army Of
Russia. where endless talk is of food
prices and the crashing exchanges.
An Abode Of Schieber.
The road sweeps around TO the big
hotel, a long, seven-story building.
high above the valley. facing land
Scape Of high mountains. This is
now an abode of Schieber, the war
and postwar profiteers.
Most OF the guests are Austrian;
a few are Hungarian Czech. and Ser
ban. The women are fat. but not
as fat ms the men. Their clothes arc
undeniably new and undenicbly ex-
pensive. All the men wear knickCr-
bockers in extraordinary checks, or
Norwegian ssi costumes in blue. A
blue and yellow waistcoat of surpris-
ing acreage was relatively quiet in
that assemblage. The furs of the
women would go far towards paying
off some os Austria's debts.
The Shiebers are not liked in their
native cities. They made their money |
too suddenly and too-unconventi0n- |
ally. The second richest man in Aus
tria is 90 years old. In 1916 he was
clerk in a dry goods store. equipped, |
apparently. only with a talent for !
selling silk stockings But he got p |
war contract. and later was of ths
first IN suspect that the kronen was
going 10 fall. His use Of that hunch |
was very simple. He borrowed money !
from the banks and from other
sources. paying high interest without |
Z murmur. He changed his borrow
ings into sound cur.ancies and one
way or another got them deposited in
Swiss banks. When the kronen fell /
be paid his debts in money that was
worth very small fraction of his
actual debt. Subsequent financial Op-
crations were as successful and now
he has a fortune estimated variouslr.
hut never at less than 100000. 600
geo kfonen. He owns newspapers.
banks. factories. art galleries. hotels .
and he is only 20.
Picked Nations Pockets.
Another famous Schieber was n
bank clerk before the war and still
another a peddler of secondhand
clothes. The whole clan, unhampered
by financial or ethical traditions. con-
spired with the period of emergency |.
TO pick the pockets of an entire pop
ulation. particularly those of the con-
wise i'm who had been sat
isfied with a paltry 10 or 20 pc:
cent on their capital. If the for
tunes of the Schiebers. who this year
make up nearly the entire clientele
Of such resorts as Semmering. could
have been pried out of Swiss banks.
there would have been no need ot
generous American millions to keepl
The children of the cities from starv-
ing to death-but that is an old
story. II
Everybody skis and everybody Il
wears special. brand-new ski cos
tunes. Some deliberately toboggancd.
[ watched one fat young financier
work at the latter sport.
His tobogsan was the most modern
and expensive one in the world. 1t,
steerod like an automobile. had an
elaborate hood. cushions and i'm
proved brakes. When he finished the
nile long slide. he did not get off the
lied; instead he laid down on it and
lighted a cigarette. A peasant hitched
/ horse to it and. hand on bride. led
he way beck up the hill, while the
portsman who doubtless was thus {
striving 10 redu"e thp certainlr need .
d it, yawned pathetically.