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TIIE SUNDAY OREGOXIAX, PORTLAND, 3IARCII 21, 1920
SILVER COIN WORKS WONDERS IN LAND
OF SWISS, IN BUYING GERMAN GOODS
If One Can Get Across the Frontier From France $400 Wwrth of French Franc Pieces Will Buy a Forty
Thousand Francs German Automobile.
.9
WJiBtln Ordmsry rxtnesWouZd 2e r
A? Cent JCore.
i BOiS7 DE 50 CENTIMES
ft I 7.
" i.U,
44 ygr r"TO:yr uuuwyj
JSC ZJ 1- k
s
Cui-rency of Chambrx-.of Commerce
. Ten fofrs or JVu2Tipls of Ten.
one of rr2y yTofea, Zssurefzn Jerri-
Jssued toy Cnamber of commerce
ofSeZfor. '
7JieZ9feJt Idw "JfegionaT 'Currency Jbfes. Transof Issued by cnsmber- of
M Commerce of Entire frencft Zepffrfnenf.
BY STKRLIXG HE1LIG.
P.RIS, Feb. 1. If you can get
across th Franco-Swiss frontier
with a bug of silver coin, say J400
worth of French fanc pieces, you
can buy a 40.000-francs German aiito-
in England, even the gold and sil
ver market of the world! At the re
cent new record price of 8214 pence
ier ounce to which silver jumped In
London, the silver in a shilling be
comes worth something more than 1
shilling:, i pence and the silver in half
mobile of the best make. And fur- a crown worth 3 shilling-9 li pence.
niture, toys, fancy goods, etc., at the
same figure.
The way it is done is this: Tour
worth" means, of course, an
American check for J400 sold in Paris
for 10 francs per dollar (it has been
much higher), and it thus produces
you 4000 francs in current French
money i. e., French banknotes and
fractional silver. Now you must
change all the banknotes to silver,
put it in the bag and get across with
it to Geneva. In Geneva, where the
mark is current at 1 centimes,
you can ect 10 marks' worth of
Ucrman-maile merchandise for your
Swiss . ur; and your French silver
passes ai p;ir, and there you are. If
you have a chauffeur's license you can
drive your new 40,000-marks motor
car to the hotel immediately. Proba
bly you can buy marks cheaper from
your New York broker; but, for this
transaction, don't. The bargains are
in Swiss money or Iatin-Union silver
coin. Why. your $400 American check,
sold at its present small premium in
a Geneva bank, is worth only 2200
francs of Swiss money: so it will buy
only half of that scrumptious German-made
car or parlor set or silver
ware looted in North Italy or rugs
stolen in Belgium.
A Frenchman, with his banknotes
or checks, when he gets into the oc
cupied territory, can purchase (by
conventional fixed rate) only 18,180
marks' worth of German autos. drugs
or furs pillaged in Russia for his
4000 frar.cs and we the same, if we
go via French exchange; while
Geneva current French exchange
gives slightly better, say 2000 francs
Swiss money, which, as I explained
before, will buy 20,000 marks' worth
of ersatz.
So, there Is no getting away from
it you need the bag. And to fill it
with French coin requires so much
hustling or expense that, before the
bag is filled, you are liable to get
drunk and be run over by a motor
truck or have your clothes torn in
assault and battery or land in jail,
like those 14 men in London, on a
charge of maneuvering against the
security of the realm. Of course you
may get oft but-the profits would be
eaten into by lawyers" fees, stamped
paper and cost of restaurant meals
sent into your cell while awaiting
bail.
The danger of drink comes from
changing your French banknotes in
cafes. The waiters wlli always give
you silver, nickel and copper change
to make up S francs and the rest in
5-francs banknotes. The fight comes
when you firmly refuse postage
stamps in shops or try to buy up sil
ver in bulk from street car conduc
tors, market women or cashiers or
bill collectors.
Jail lurks with it.
You see all these fellows have their
own private customers for all the
fractional silver they can lay hands
on. or else are realy-truly patriots.
Which being the case, it would be a
waste of science to tell you how to
get across the French frontier into
Switzerland (or into Spain) with the
bag.
The bag would be empty.
But if you should manage to have
a lot of silver coin in it, they would
sure take it away from you!
Nobody can get across the Frencn
frontier with silver coin.
At nearby French resorts, like Di
vonne. natives and sanitarium board
ers obtain "frontier cards," good for
a two days' trip into Switzerland and
permitting the bearer to carry in his
(or her) pockets 10 francs' worth of
change in silver and 100 francs in
French banknotes. Parties of sight-
sera linger around the posts to see
automobile parties and entire train
loads searched for "the excedent"
anything over. The eternal feminine
hides it down eternally in the eternal
safe deposit bulge of femininity.
They spot it. Selah.
Tourists with a passport have a
right to take out of France 20 francs
in silver coin and lwou rrancs in
French banknotes.
Now you see one reason why siiver
coin is so scarce in France and just
as scarce everywhere else in Europe
except in Switzerland. Spain and a
few like sponges of humanity. (It is
not the Swiss, you understand, who
search you.) he Bank of France can
print banknotes advantageously. But
to coin a silver dollar (which is likely
to immediately disappear) today costs
$1.30 In France and about the sam
These values cannot, of course, be
legally realized, because the laws in
the various countries prevent the sil
ver coinage from being melted down
or exported.
So it has to be done illegally.
Every day, in both France and Eng
land, they are catching parties ped
dling and fences accepting silver bul
lion so imperfectly melted down that
outlines, dates, letters and devices of
coins are visible, here and there, on
this or that surface. It takes a lot
of heat to make silver as liquid as
molasses. Only the competent and
well-provided should attempt it. They
get there, O. K.
Please do not think that these
things happen in bleeding France
alone. The bloody boche has none to
melt I mean in circulation. As foi
us Americans, the recent decision of
the United States treasury to melt
up 70,000,000 silver dollars and use
the ingots for settling trade balances
in China has brought to light the fact
that the American dollar is at a dis
count in several Oriental countries
as it was, up to recently, in Switzer
land and Spain including China and
India. This astonishing condition (in
the general disruption of exchange)
is brought about by immense trade
balances in favor of China and India
which have piled up in the United
States and in Europe. The demand
has been for payment in silver, and
the price of that metal has advanced
gradually to a point which makes the
amount of pure silver in an American
dollar worth considerably more than
the face value of the coin.
You see. We ourselves the United
States treasury have begun to melt
lt4to merchantable bullion. Why
hand a coined bonus to the Chinese
equal to 70,000,000 times ... 30
cents? We'd feel like it ourselves.
If this sort of thing continues the
governments of Europe (and doubt
less our own) may be constrained to
call in the entire silver circulation
before that of gold is released; and
(as the poet would with fate conspire
to grasp the sorry scheme of things
entire) they'll
. . . shatter It to bits and then
Remould it nearer to the heart's de
sire? Put less silver in 'em, you know.
Ah, moon of my delight who
know'st no wane, if it could onlv be
done all round! Gosh! to be reissued,
pure, cheap, at a profit . . . for
the boss!
French silver dollars ceased to run
the streets about November, 1914. Bu
just rare, nothing more.
Cashing some American checks at
Geneva in January, 1915, I obtained,
for the asking, 250 silver dollars, at
par, which I lugged into France, with
labor, two valises, a passport and the
hope of gain.
Nobody searched me. Nobody re
lieved me. Nobody offered me a bo
nus; and, in Paris, little by little,
those silver plunks were frittered
away paying rent and grocery. (Had
I stood them off moratorium!
could have 50 per cent reduction to
day, like the wise guys. Instead, the
landlord tried to double our rent at
armistice.) I don't know what he
did with the silver; but I'll bet he
would have "sweated" it by patient
shaking in a horsehair bag, had he
known how. before it disappeared.
"French peasants have patriotically
given their gold to the government,'
it was generally understood, "and as
they've got to hoard something, they
are loading the woollen stocking with
silver dollars."
Fractional silver began to grow
less plentiful at the same time, but
much slower. Around 1918, in Tours,
it was a real inconvenience. "It's
the peasants," sneered the cashier
lady at Felix Potin's. "They come
Into town twith eggs and cabbages
and clean up all the fractional silver
take it with them.
Influenza Attacks Fish, De
clares Warden.
Waahlnirton Official Telia of Lou
of Trout From Pneumonia.
" OLVILLE, Wash., March 20. (Spe-
clal.) Do nsh have the influ
enza? "They surely do," says C. J.
Rhodes, superintendent of the Stevens
county fish hatcnery and game farm.
"Not only that, but they have pneu
monia just like people and they die
of it, too. This winter we lost many
thousands of trout fry just before we
removed our last run and cleaned up
for the spring run. It was a mys
tery to us what caused so many losses
in the trays, but a microscope dis
covered in some that were yet alive
that they were suffering from un
usually red and inflamed gills. We
saved many by using a moderate solu
tion of salt.
The deer in our zoo were also af
flicted with the influenza and we
sustained a loss of a few pheasants
and quail.
Italian Sailors to Meet.
GENOA. The sailors' conference,
which is to be held in connection
with the international labor body
constituted under the league of na
tions, is to take place on June 15.
i The perfection of style, fit and (1
I design combined with first-class ,1
HI finish and wearing value
V 'wV O'Donnell Shoe Co. J
Vl 3 Saint Paul, Minn. 1
l vlr& vfl JoM by the Better Shoe J'tores 1
1 A i ' PrinClpal QtieS i
Write fbr Catalog 11
See Also Our Regular Advertisement on Page 1, Society Section
"Restgood"
Mattresses
We are exclusive Portland
agents for the famous "Rest
good?' Mattresses. Filled with
sanitary curled hair. On display
Furniture Dept., Fourth Floor.
The Standard Store of the Northwest
01ds,Wortman
GfKmg
Reliable Merchandise Reliable Methods
Sweeper-Vac
Cleaners
Do your Spring Clraninir with
a Sweeper-Vac Sold n Easy
Pay Plan $. down and $." per
month. Demonstration in the
Rug Department, Third Floor.
March Sale of Room -Size Rugs 3d Floor
Offering Thousands of Dollars' Worth of Floor Coverings at Great Savings
Hi mnrTTTf
Monday morning: we launch our Annual March Sale of Room-size Rugs. This has come to
be an event of great importance to home-keepers and this season we are going to give our
customers values such as have not been offered in Portland for many a day. If you need a
new Rug, don't fail to take advantage of this opportunity to buy it at a substantial reduction.
The Rug Sale of the Year
$44.50
$35.00 Brussels Rugs; fl?0l OK
size 9x11.6 priced special D'Ot)
?45.0O Brussels Rugs; ?Or7 tZfi
size 9x12 ft nrired snecial I OVJ
$50.00 Velvet Rugs; size
9x12 ft., in the sale; only
?65.00 Odd size (8x12 (PPQ OC
ft.) Wilton Veet Rugs at DOO00
$64.50 Wilton Velvet fiJCQ OK
Rugs; size 8x11.6; special fDUOmOO
$60.00 Wilton Velvet CM 7
Rugs; size 9x12 ft.; only I .Dei
$62.50 Axminster Rugs; J?CK Oft
size 9x12 .ft.; priced only DJJ.UU
$67.50 Axminster Rugs, CCQ Cf
size 9x12 ft. special at DOO0J
$72.50 Axminster Rugs, CJ?C ((
size 9x12 ft. special at tDOO. UU
$90.00 Axminster Rugs, (jJ7'7 FTfl
size 9x12 ft., special at & I OV
$115 Wilton Rugs,
Special $95
Third Floor Fringed Wilton Rugs of
splendid quality. Size 9x12 ft. and
beautiful rich patterns.
Regular price $115 now
S95.00
0
Equip Your Home
With the Celebrated
Draperies Underpriced
hrenlm
H B mm nmm mmm. ut mi 4fw
UNFILLED
WindowShades
Brenlin Window Shades will wear
twice as long as the ordinary kind.
Made from a material that resists
the constant strains of daily use
a material that will not crack or
spot. We are exclusive Portland
agents for Brenlin Window Shades.
Third Floor
Spring house-cleaning reveals
the need of new Draperies.
Here's an opportunity to buy
them at a saving worth while.
65c Marquisettes
54c Yard
Third Floor Colored Marquis
ettes in many beautiful designs
for curtains and draper- tZA n
ies. 65c grade yard
CURTAIN Voiles with taped
edge. Very strong and durable
for any style of curtain OQ
or drape. Special, yard
STRIPED Drapery Silks in
beautiful colorings. Very desir
able for windows. 50 tl1 nt
inches wide. $2 grade DJ.U
COLORED MADRAS in many
beautiful patterns. 50 flJO A fir
inches wide. $3 grade D&i0
$1.35 Colored Madras 98 yd.
Sale of Small Rugs
$10.00 Rugs at $8.75
$12.00 Rugs at $9.90
Royal Wilton Rugs in several
beautiful patterns. Nice size for
hall or living room. (JQ P7ft
27x54 inches. Special tDO.lt
-Royal Wilton Rugs, size 27x54
inches. Choice assortment of pat
terns to select from. PQ Qfk
Regular $12.00 grade 0JJ
Reversible Fiber Rugs
At Splendid Savings
Third FJoor Reversible Fiber Rugs are very durable and arc much
used for bedrooms and dining rooms. Heavy grade. See them.
$13.75 Reversible (J- 1 Qft I $21.00 Reversible Ii Q OfJ
Fiber Rugs, 6x9 ft. wll.JU Fiber Rugs. 8.3x10.6 OlO.OU
$22.50 Reversible CJ1 Q Kft
Fiber Rugs, 9x12 ft.
$18.00 Reversible (PIT QP
Fiber Rugs, 9x9 ft. Dd.Ot)
Spring Sales in the Housewares Store, 3d Floor
Imp o r t ed D inn er war e
Easter Showing
VVT-J I
NEW DINNER SETS large
shipment just received in time
for Easter. These sets contain
99 pieces and are of fine quality.
Dinner Sets with green and
rose colored spray design. Set
contains 99 pieces.
S40.00
L
Third Floor We show the larg
est and most complete stock of
Dinner Ware in the Northwest.
Recent shipments have added
greatly to our fine collection.
SPECIAIi Decorated Nippon
China Dinner Sets of 43 pieces
very attractive. (IJOQ
Priced special at DAJ I O
SPECIAL 60-piece Sets of
Decorated Nippon fljfl 7
China special at D4:l. I J
SPECIAL Tea Sets of Nip
pon China in dainty (flO Art
decorations. Priced D J-."l
Priced at a Set
Dinner Sets with Dresden
roses, forget-me-nots and green
leaves. 99 pieces. fl?Trt fift
Priced at a Set OUV.UU
Dinner Sets with pink garland
border decoration. (PIC (f
99 pieces to the set tDrtUU
Dinner Sets in conventional
design in delft (CIIH Oft.
blue. 99 pieces D-LJ-U.UU
Dinner Sets Greek key bor
der with gold edge, hairline and
gold handles. Of- (PI ( ff
fered at the Set 0i-U.UU
MINTON'S English Bone
China Tea Pots, Salad Bowls,
Chocolate Pots, Sherbet Cups
odd lines on sale at 1-5 OFF.
Carpet Sweepers
At $3.25
Third Floor Standard Carpet
Sweepers with full size brush.
Oak or mahogany finish. Nickel
plated -ends, cap and PO Off
bail. Priced special at DOLiV
3-Piece Tea Sets
$9.95
Third Floor Quadruple plated 3
piece Tea Sets as illustrated above.
Bright finish and beautiful design.
Limited number of sets
Sale of Paints
HOUSE TAINTS in several de
sirable colors. This is a well-known
make that will give sat- (J0
isfaction. Special, gallon DO.t
Outside and Inside White $:t.."0
WHITK KNAMF.L for interior
woodwork, walla and furniture.
Produces a hard, lasting finii-h,
Supply your needs at once
at this low price pint at iO
FLOOR AND LINOLEUM VARNISH SPECIAL QUART $I.OO
Boilers at $2.75
Third Floor Large size Wash Boilers with
metallic bottom. These are (?0 nr
worth far more money. Special I O
Family Scales, weighing to 24 lbs. .f.H.I
Good quality Oregon-made Brooms 1S(
TH'
71!
j in the sale each only
S9.95
Sandwich Trays
At $3.19
Third Floor Silver-plated Sand
wich Trays in a large assortment
of patterns. These are from
lines selling formerly at $3.85
to $4.60. While they fl0 1 Q
last special at only tDO.Xi
$7.50 Casseroles
At $4.95
Third Floor Silver-plated Cas
seroles with Guernsey lining.
Choice of two different sizes.
Regular $6.50 and (Pi QP
$7.50 values. Special DiWil
Wm. Rogers Silverware
Special Easter Sale
3d Floor Wm. Rogers
high-grade silver-plated
Table Ware in the
beautiful Chippendale
pattern, as illustrated,
on sale at very special
prices Monday, Tues
day and Wednesday.
Guaranteed 10 years.
Special Sale prices
do not include war tax.
Sets of Six
Medium Knives $2.95
Medium Forks $2.66
Tea Spoons for $1.33
Table Spoons $2.66
Dessert Spoons $2.48
Soup Spoons at $2.66
Ind. Salad Fork $3.24
Oyster Forks $2.79
Butter Spreads $2.86
Single Pieces
Berry Spoons $1.50
Gravy Ladles $1.14
Cream Ladles at 76c
Pie Servers at $1.99
Sugar Spoons at 58c
Butter Knives at 58c
Pickle Forks at 76c
Cold Meat Forks 95c
NOTE We show a
complete stock of high
grade Table Silver in
best makes.
Detroit Jewel Gas Range
Special $41.75
ml.
This is a splendid Range for the
average family. Takes up very lit
tle space. Equipped with gas-saving
burners, easy to clean and sanitary.
Made of high-grade materials and
workmanship of the beRt.
A Perfect
IJaker
Has tha famous Detroit Jewel
Oven with double construction. Left
or right styles to suit your kitchen
arrangement. We would be pleased
to have you inspect this wonderful
range. For a limited time $ 1 1.75
All Stoves and Ranges Sold on Easy Pay Plan
Silver-Plated Novelties, $1.25, $1.49
Third Floor Silver-plated May
onnaise Dish in footed style with
silver-plated ladle.
Regular $1.75 value
$1.49
Third Floor Glass Butter Dish
with silver-plated top. Pleasing
design. This is a regu- I" OpT
Iar $1.75 value. Special DJ-t)
f irv ji
AM
I
Great 6-Day Drive On
Electric Washing
Machines
This week we shall feature a special demonstration
of Electric Washing Machines. As a special induce
ment to those who contemplate purchasing an Electric
Washer we will give
1000 Trading
Stamps
with each machine purchased during the next six days.
If you wish to pay cash you will get 1000 stamps in
addition to the regular stamps if you purchase on
the installment plan you will receive 1000 stamps.
One-Minute Electric Washers, $2.00 down, $2.00 week
1900 Cataract Washers, $10.00 down and $3.75 week
Gainaday Electric Washers, $10.00 down, $3.00 week
Simplex Electric Ironers, $15.00 down, $3.75 week
Housewares Store, 3d Floor
Full Line of Garden Tools
and Lawn Needs
Third Floor Our new Spring stock of
Garden Tools and Lawn Needs is now com
plete in every detail. Make out your list
and bring it to this store. Reasonable prices.
Suggestions
Combination Hoe and Rake priced 80
One-Prong Cultivators priced only (iT?
Three-Prong Cultivators priced .$1.00
Hand Sprayers priced at only 7."
Reversible Lawn Rakes priced at
Long or ahort bpade.
priced at only $1.80
Long or Short Handle .
Spading Forks at $1.60
5-spring Cultivators
priced special at $1.25
Garden Rakes 50 up
Hoes at 50 to $1.25
Grass Shears only 05
Grass Hooks 50 to$l
Garden Trowels 15 up
Headquarters for Lawn Mowers
And Garden Hose
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