DAILY LIFE IN BERLIN.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 15956, 18 October 1922, Page 5

DAILY LIFE IN BERLIN.

RECKLESS SPENDING AND HIGH PRICES.

(By an Englishwoman in Berlin.) The problem of exchange and tha relative value of money used to concern business men and economists. Now it is a factor in every woman's daily life, at least on the Continent.

Men think of the exchange and tho Valuta from the lofty clouds of causation. Women face its effect in the little shop. The dollar slips from six hundred to one thousand, for reasons with which we are not concerned. In ;i few hoars it has recorded its effect ia the butcher's shop, in the dairy, in the grocer's, and baker's. It puts its seal on the habits and character of a nation, just as it does on the price of a chair.or a. costume.

For us who receive our money from England or America, who belong to what the Gernmns call'the "Vaiutastroiig" countries, there are occasional exciting moments. These occtir, usually, i mined iatelw after the quicksand has slid over an intermediate cliff and come momentarily to rest before gathering renewed and faster motion.,,,At these moments everything seems marvellously cheap, and one has to exercise great self-control not.to Jay in a store of things that are xeallyy.:unnecessary but absurdly eheag. It'' is asking, a lot of women to require them to resist:that. Soon things became almost' normally dear again (it is then explained to one that German prices have approximated to world prices), and one is apt to regret the fortitude and the lost opportunities. , But tho latter always recur. : THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR^.' That is our. side of it, an unfailing subject, at Berlin tea .and dinner parties. Those of us who work "in offices or keep house see another side of it—that of the.people of, the country. They,. too> have joined the business man and tho economist in studying'the Valuta, and in little it concerns them just as closely. The market quotation of the dollar is in every paper,,and as the quicksand slides down, the 'hill, they see it sweeping various'articles out of their reach. The shopman'' -is governed by the dollar in fixing his retail prices, the workman is governed by the dollar in his demand for wages. Never was the dollar so mighty. as today-' , .' \ ;> . V ',.'-'. '■';'.' : ..

The wages of. my maid (whom we cal). " The Treasury'.■'. and the Germans '/The PearJ") have been raised three times since. Christmas. She. does . not want more money.. "It is only paper," ,she . says, and she ! knows that in a week 's time it may buy only half of what it Will buy to-day. A savings bank account is of no use to .her. Old people in her village have saved and scraped all their Eves, and'to-day their little hoard will not buy a pig. ■'".' Therefore, like a wise: girl, as 'the* othets would say, she ( spends ( her money as she gets it. If she.wants a pair of, boots'she buys two /pairs; if she wants a new Dirndl Kleid (the equivalent ..of a print dress ), she buys materialfor three. She' has a drawer full of linen. Her little. room is bveercrowded with, her adventures in furniture.,, Perhaps some day .she, hopes to get married/or (since she is said, to ,be not the marrying sort).to start a,"pension." And now .she is puzzled where to put her possessions. One thing she will not do. She haa.no use for marks. ''. •

UPWARD RUSH OF j The woman who keeps the office clean and,acts as messenger for my many errands, is, also well paid (as pay goes here), yet I am ashamed to say in English money .what she gets. She, too,,watches,the Valuta, She,is the main support of .her blind husband, and. has. launched ,sbn. upon "the world to. make his career as a,waiter. With this family there has been! no margin for saving, even if they had wanted to; Their food daily, costs them more. Their rent is now to bo ' raised. , ; , ™ : ~?~'- ; Each pnfchaso hjis to bo'made at llio precise combination of moments" w£en she has tho money and 'theT, Valuta with it the price) is" favorable. "When ihQ. dollar goes to a thousand" she said tho other day, ; -5.'1. r -ani. going, into .tho. water. J,' Tt/is herrAKay of saying life will hot be worth Hying. But i,t touched 1100, and oh wi,th her work., She, looks round the office, a,. puzzled and rather pathetic figure. "I know ypu won't let me starve,'' she says. ..,/",//, i I shall not, of, course. . Her wages are duly, adjusted oh. each occasion, and she is merely bewildered by '.'the upward rush of-prices. ' "\''. ••. . A FARTHING AN HOUR. ! Sometimes "The Treasure'.'requires •» extra help in the house. She has only to hold up a finger, aiid women/ como tumbling over themselves, to. assist. They will hour—less a Earthing how, ~a.ud jt,'niay;bo anything .you like fo-mor-rbw. But that is. not what they aro thinking a^pvit." Thoy loiqw'they will get their, food—proper^/square mealey-*-'probably, something. substantial 4 to tatoe away, at tlio Qad Pf. the ..day. With luck there will..also. .be. some clothes. The few marks axe nothing. Their husbands are in work—nobodyis out of work—and fully- employed at their union rate of wages. It depends upon tho size and ages of .their f amiiies, .whether;' they have any money .to spare for the occasional enEvement of !iheir duE Eves. One of the women, 'told luc'of an "afternoon put'V sta had had with her husband J and ner daughter' It was the first 'for a- Jpng tirae.. ...'. They went to one Pf the.'Zjjlten, those nierryJooking, open-air beer iestaurants under the chestnuts limes beside /tho Tiorgartpn,, Whore there is always a always, a crowd,.always life, and merriment, and the accessories of a good time. They ordered (as we should say) thrfie large lagers, and the price was.forty- \ , eiglit, marks. That was a bad Valuta day. '"' It so shocked them that they had.no more. They sat- over their three largo largers from 5 o'clock till 10, and must have cost the proprietdr nearly as much money in electric light alone. .. ■ \ . : .,.-'.' : > : - , I am told that things are so dear because' everybody is spending money. i find everybody spending money because everything, is s6v dear and will certainly become dearer. , It is the same in every class. . .' •■.', ' ',. . As a'last anecdote, I qupte from Vienna the parable of ," The Now Prodigal Son." An old man lay dying. Calling his sons to his bedsido, lie gavo them'each one thousand crowns, admonishing- them to make tlio best use of it.' Tho good son put his portion into the savings, bank; tho wicked son, heedless of' his . fathor's advice, bought ono thousand bottles of cheap .wine, which ho drank with,his .friends. The war came and went. Some years after' it had passed the good.son went to tho savings bank and found.he/had still one thousand ■crowns',, worth 000 to the pound.. The wicked's^n.bethought himself of the cellarful ;;of empty bottles, the sole remnant ,; of many a jolly* carouse. And h.o/eojd them. They'brought him ono million crowns. —London Times.