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Mr. Mortimer L. Schiff -2- Feb. 24th. 1921

to you one word without [[strikethrough]]asking[[/strikethrough]] ^[[showing]] it. When you come to an hotel they make you bills which are awful. In Francfort, they charged me 250 Marks for a small room, 50 Marks for [[strikethrough]]dinner[[/strikethrough]] ^[[heating]], and then they charge, I do not remember if it is 25% or 50% more because you are foreigners.

When you come into an hotel, and that was everywhere: in Francfort, in Berlin, Munich, they give you a slip of paper on which is printed that you ought not to put your boots and your clothes outside, that the hotel's proprietor does not guarantee for anything. In fact, everything is stolen away from you. In Berlin they stole me the trees of my boots, they stole me my comb, and you cannot be careful enough. If you imagine how honest and honorable this nation was before the war, I assure you it is not to be believed.

You cannot get rooms anywhere, all the hotels are full; in consequence you have to cable two or three days in advance; they won't reserve rooms by telephone. You cannot send any more, as you did it times ago, a telegram which arrives the same day as it is sent. Telegrams arrive two or three days afterwards; if you want to telegraph to somebody you must do it "urgent" and then you are not certain whether the telegram arrives. 

I wanted to telephone from Munich to Francfort; the girl at the telepphone told me that this was impossible, because if I asked my telephone communication at 9 o'clock in the morning, I might perhaps get it at midnight; she advised me to telephone "urgent" if I wanted an answer, and this means three times the tax. I have followed her advice, and in fact got my telephone communication within about 8 minutes.