Show EUROPEAN CUSTOMS MEN SEEK CURRENCY money inspectors active at every frontier vienna it used to beback be ha back before the world economic nightmare began that your baggage was waa th thoroughly 0 roughly searched and mauled hauled over every time yon yog crossed a european fron frontier tier which was every few hours in this neck of the woods writes wl william lam sharer in the chicago tribune not any more today its your pocketbook the frontier officials want in the scramble for or your money e especially pec ally lally it if it Is gold money that Is 13 dollars or francs they have forgotten about your luggage completely in germany an aad ad the states of central europe and the balkans it has become a grave offense to have one of them with more than a little pocket money on you only with a special permit from tho the national bank or a special stamp la in your passport showing how much you have brought in which most frontier guardsmen guardsman guards men con recently forget to give elvo you can you beti by with as an much as you bro brought aught in or indeed with enough to last you ton to the next capital side step czech border I 1 recently ran the gauntlet from bucharest to berlin I 1 crossed three frontiers the rumanian hungarian the hungarian austrian and the austrian german at the last las going from vienna to berlin it would have been shorter to go via prague but that meant meeting czech officials coming in and goinik out and those with w ith business to do had been duly warned that the inspection of ones purse in czechoslovakia was sometimes very severe one frontier upped may have bare meant days and money saved not to mention trouble the orient express corning coining from bucharest to budapest reaches the rumanian hungarian frontier at a in since it Is an all sleeper train many passengers are attempting to sleep at that hour the joke Is on them as it was on me because I 1 was trying to sleep too there were loud bangs on the compartment part ment door swift kicks from a horse make them any louder I 1 scrambled for the light switched it on unchained the door and opened it three plain clothes men v with a couple ot of uniformed officers behind them crowded into the tiny compartment I 1 told them I 1 have anything to declare but that they could takei a look at my bags and a typewriter lt lf they wished to they wish to your purse shouted one in german i i yow your purse shouted the second one in hungarian the third said it in another language an inic ge probably rumanian Any got the idea they wanted my purse this A train robbery I 1 cried out sleepily in the first ian language guage that came to me probably a mixture of german french no its ita not a robbery its customs inspection give us your purse we want to see your money one of them explained we jawed back and forth in what seemed like hours but probably was only a few minutes the train porter came in to help us ua adding a few new languages which had not been introduced bea before 0 re but we were no match for these frontier men and finally to in s sheer heer exha exhaustion ution I 1 gave in reached for my pants grabbed my pocketbook and turned it over glad for a chanco chance to rest and sleep even if my money was gone money Is all there that really la in all there Is to it after a while about the time you are arc fealk asleep again the officials come back with your pocketbook you wake up you count your money it Is all there the train moves on a few miles the hungarian officials als climbed in the attack was renewed this time I 1 handed banded over my pocketbook meekly the officials did not bother me much this time because I 1 bad the prop proper e r stamps put on my hungarian visa aa when I 1 left hungary a few days before so you yon journey on through budapest and then you come to the run hun garlan garian austrian frontier the old story repeats itself and so to vienna by this time you are used to handing your pocketbook over to the first man that asks you tor for it it chii this Is quite a dangerous frame of mind because the streets of vienna swarm with singing beggars who n ask sk for your money such are the pleasures of european travel in these dark days they are liard on tourists or busi business neos men or i newspaper men but they must he be great for smugglers nobody ever thinks to look in your bags any more j |