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Show ONE TAXI RIDE IS 4500 CROWNS But That Is Only 15 Cents; Writer Becomes Millionaire Million-aire With $150 Ht WILLIAM IlIRD. .Special lo The stnndanl-E:tmlVr. (Copyright. 1922. by The Standard Examiner. VIENNA, May 8 If. on arriving today In ' lenna you cash a $12.i cheek you are a millionaire. But only for a moment. Alas for the wealth of this world. It passes quickly in other words, easy come, ea-sy go. Here cu are no longer multiplying 'or dividing hy two or five or fifty but by thousands. You Stagger back when Ithe taxi driver asks you for 4500 I crowns as the price of the ride from the station to the hotel. Let's sec how man. lire is that7 TALK IN THOUSANDS. At first everything seems frightfully expensive. A thousand crowns Is the unit of currency for all practical purposes pur-poses And the 1000 crown notes melt away llk pennies at a pipp show You begin to wonder anxiously whether o i cught not to take the first train for somewhere else, while a few hundred thousand of your million are still left. But then comes tho realization that after all 1 000 crowns In only 15c and S great relief overwhelms you. When this conception has sunk Into your consciousness, you begin to expand gloriously: You begin to spend with a lavish hand. Here you say to your-Iself, your-Iself, Is the paradise of the dollar. Ten ihousand, 20.000. even 50,000 crowns hardly make you blink. If you proceed long on this basis, Vienna Is scarcely the cheapest plate in the world A little heedlessness In selecting your dishes -and your dinner i may easily cost you ?3 A little reck-! tesSnOBS about taxis and you may be several dollars poorer at the end of the dav on transportation alone. STRVMiE ONTRASTS. The fact Is that Vienn.i prices are ai thing of strange contrasts. Despite the exchange, clothing for instance. Is actually dearer than In London or New York. The better hotels charge more for rooms than the best hotels of Ven ice. But after a few days you discover that there arc always a way of economizing econo-mizing In Vienna .and that the careful care-ful tourist can make a long stay fur comparatively little money. Restaurant prices vary widely Mv first luncheon In Vienna cost me 1570 crowns (less than 25 cents). It consisted con-sisted of a very good beef dish potatoes, pota-toes, a pastry' and a large glass of beer. It was not a cheap restaurant either The same evening for dinner I decided to see how much a really expensive meal would come to, and so l went to what Is well known as th'-most th'-most expensive restaurant in Vienna, The check totalled 34.000 crowns, or rearly $5. Thla same meal at the same restaurant. restau-rant. Viennese residents tell me, would I not have cost over 10.000 crowns a! few months ago. Yet at the present time it Is quite possible tc live comfortably and even In comparative luxury for il.50 a day In Vienna Room 4,000 crowns, meals 5.000 and a thousand for tips niuken about 51.10 at the present rate of exchange. Fvl NTS REG1 LATED. One thing that makes prices attract-1 Ive nowadays Is the governmental regulation reg-ulation of rents. Thus far landlords! have not been permitted to raise rents! more than an Insignificant amount . r.hove tho pre-war rent. Hotels and private householders as well are paying pay-ing annual rents that in some cases do not run over 10 a year. One American here has two furnished rooms, down-town, for 90 cents a month anil even so he had to beg his landlady to raise the rent from tho previous price of 12c. This situation la destined to "change in a tew months, as the government Lp gradually relaxing its control. That means that rents will go up and that the prices of hotel rooms will follow I IRKS IRK ( HEAP Railroad fares in central Europe ar; practically negligible You can go all i the way across Austria for about a dollar in third class, or two dollars in second, or six dollars In first clas-s. I And if you don't mind crowding, third i class is quite practicable for short Jumps. Your traveling companions aro il'kely to be mostly Austrian "sportsmen "sports-men " "Sport" In Austria consists primarily primari-ly In dortnlng a pair of green leather ityrolean breeches, a pair of Scottish 'looklntr stockings (baro knees of OOltree), a shirt overlaid with fancy suspenders and a felt hat with a feather feath-er in It. An alpenstock and knapsack icomplote the outfit Thou tho sports-Iman sports-Iman gets Into a third class compartment compart-ment and travels somewhere where Ihe get out and walks over hill and. dale with others of his species |