NIGHT LIFE IN BERLIN.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16493, 22 July 1919, Page 2

NIGHT LIFE IN BERLIN.

Mr. Wythe Williams, of Collier's Weekly, writing of night life in Berlin in the middle of May. says:—

Jn the gambling clubs greater stakes are on the tables than at Monto Carlo. Nothing is thought of £SOOO. Most of if is in notes so suspiciously fresh that the ink almost smears if it is rubbed. Most of tho habitues are Russians. Some of the old junker crowd are about, staring quite as insolently as ever, through their monocles. The bourgeois patrons are war profiteers. Sometimes when the bank is hard hit it closes payment for half an hour. Then new and' fresher mark notes appear, with numbers that are not listed at the Rckhsbank. But no one cares. Jn tho cabarets and little dance halls the abandon of the night continues with the dawn. Occasionally shots can be heard outside. But no one cares. The waiters stagger under great travs of champagne, and suppers ot foie gras and truffles sandwiches. Berlin has unlimited money—good and bad —and either the Allies will get it or the Bolsheviks will. So there is a race to spend it. There is music everywhere. The favourite number is the "Waltz of Destiny,” soft, slow, haunting, tragic, and sweet. Berlin dances it'on the volcano’s brim. But no one euros.