San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-03-25
SCHOOL BOYS
CD WILD OVER
SPECULAT|ONS
German and Austrian Stu
dents Gamble Like
Grown-ups.
CAN'T STOP EPIDEMIC
Trading Is Serious-Leaves
Mark on Childish
Faces.
CAN'T STOP EPIDEMIC
By NORMAN II. MATSON.

NoptIlButg w..
Vienna, March as.-Speculation
fever, for which there seems to be no
cure and no immunizing anti-toxin, is
sweeping the public schools OF Ger
many and Austria.
Small boys have discovered that the
game OF buying cheap and selling dear
is more absorbing than any other.
Education and morals suffer, of
course.
Warning articles. in which educa-
tors point out that the boy who begins
profiteering at is not likely to make
good citizen, are being published in
the press and attempts have been made
to suppress school boy auctions. But
the children go on specializing as few
eTishly and as seriously as do their
elders.
Commercial transactions of the play
grounds bear little resemblance to the
kind Of traffic INDUCED in by Tom
Sawyer. The exchange in kind, the
trading of a door knob for a pretty
good apple core. or broken knife for
pea shooter, was known in the pre-
war German schools, too.
But there are no such frivolous and
Improbable transactions now. The
German kid is serious, he wants to
make money, and sometimes be does.
Tom Sawyer would very likely 60
bankrupt soon il he tried to work his
method among the school boys of
Vienna or Leipzig. or Berlin. He GER
tainly would unless he Immediately ap-
piled himself to the study of exchange
fluctuations in the lore of which these
strange modern children are thorough
ly verscd.
Choose an Auctioneer.
Many classes of 10 or 20-year-olds
choose a permanent auctioneer. Busi-
ness for the day opens when the tesch-
er first leaves the room. The auc-
tioneer announces that he has silver
pencil to sell. that the minimum price
is 1000 marks and that the sale will
take place at noon. At noon the gam
blers gather around him. He uses n
ruler for a hammer and raises his
voice in good Imitation of an adult
auctioneer.
The bid mounts slowly TO 1900 and
then to 1000. 1t is sold at $500.
Other articles are sold such as books,
pens, knives, silk handkerchief. In
some schools cigarettes and little bot
| ties Of liquor are sold as well as
jewelry and articles of clothing. The
boys who have been Specializing long
and successfully are easily recogni,.
able. They have the flushed dishevele1
look Of curb brokers, their caps are
showed on the hacks of their heads and
they carry their paper money in wads
that stick carelessly out of their coat
pockets. The auctioneers take 2 per
cent Of the gross receipts for commits
sion.
Business is not confined to the auc-
tons. There is a constant buying and
selling among individuals. II boy
sees some article he wants a few in
quiries will bring it on the market.
The specialists" deal in one article
only, fountain pens, for instance, or
for purses. The former are a favor
lite article of commerce and fortunes"
were made in them during the drop in
the mark and the kroncn.
Chocolate Is another favorite, and a
rushing business is done in soap, safe
ty razers (they are made to sell for
the equivalent of 10 or 10 cents) rings,
watch chains and rare postage stamps.
Some Gamble In Currency.
A Leipzig newspaper declares that
some school boys actually speculate in
foreign currency, and reports what it
declares to be typical conversation
between two high school students in
which one Of them says:
II would not 20 to school tonight ex-
cept that / want to buy two electric
light globes, l can get good price for
them"
The "Neues Weiner Journal de-
clares that ''unscrupulous" speculation
is as rife in many Austrian schools as
it is in those Of Germany.
Those parents who are proud OF the
precocious business talents OF their
boys are warned by officials that they
are mistaken. They are told that the
speculative spirit is poisoning the
youth" of the nation.