s, cafes. A cartoonist refused to take the good advice
seriously. His picture shows one of the women conductors in a street-car
asking a passenger where he is going. The passenger points to the
warning. "Silence," he says, "some one may be listening."

There are other changes. A year ago gold was king. To imagine any
time or place when it is not is difficult. But to-day an American
twenty-dollar bill gives you a higher rate of exchange than an American
gold double-eagle. A thousand dollars in bills in Paris is worth thirty
dollars more to you than a thousand dollars in gold. And to carry it
does not make you think you are concealing a forty-five Colt. The
decrease in value is due to the fact that you cannot take gold out of
the country. That is true of every country in Europe, and of any kind of
gold. At the border it is taken from you and in exchange you must accept
bills. So, any one in Paris, wishing to travel, had best turn over his
gold to the Bank of France. He will receive not only a good rate of
exchange but also an engraved certificate testifying that he has
contributed to the national defense.

Another curious vagary of the war that obtains now is the sudden
disappearance of the copper sou or what ranks with our penny. Why it is
scarce no one seems to know. The generally accepted explanation is that
the copper has flown to the trenches where millions of men are dealing
in small sums. But whatever the reason, the fact remains. In the stores
you receive change in postage-stamps, and, on the underground railroad,
where the people have refused to accept stamps in lieu of coppers, there
are incipient riots. One night at a restaurant I was given change in
stamps and tried to get even with the house by unloading them as his tip
on the waiter. He protested eloquently. "Letters I never write," he
explained. "To write letters makes me ennui. And yet if I wrote for a
hundred years I could not use all the stamps my patrons have forced upon
me."

These differences the year has brought about are not lasting, and are
unimportant. The change that is important, and which threatens to last a
long time, is the difference in the sentiment of the French people
toward Americans.

Before the war we were not unduly flattering ourselves if we said the
attitude of the French toward the United States was friendly. There
were reasons why they should regard us at least with tolerance. We were
very good customers. From different parts