Word: carton
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Italy the departure of U.S. troops had cut the supply of cigarets to the point where a cigaret currency crisis had set in. The value of a carton was as erratic as that of a lira. Enterprising Italians were doing their best to restabilize by "importing" cigarets by mass smuggling...
...France, where smuggling was somewhat less effective, cigarets (worth $15 U.S. a carton) were an international language. One Salazar Teofilo, a young Spaniard, was arrested last week while doing a land-office cigaret business in the semidarkness of the Strasbourg-St. Denis méetro station. Police soon discovered that Teofilo did not speak one word of French. Through an interpreter they learned that he had entered France clandestinely from Spain five months ago, had grossed 60,000 francs ($500) a week on the magic of the only three words he knew outside his native Spanish: "Camels, Luckies, Chesterfields...
...Austria, a year ago, a carton of cigarets had been worth $100, and comfortable Vienna apartments had rented for two packs a month. A carton was still worth $15. But last week the Austrian Government had the schilling so well under control that real money was driving out cigaret currency. Americans in Austria still use cigarets as their standard tips...
Millions of U.S. citizens seemed to find the whole business highly satisfying. Housewives complained vociferously, but brought home overpriced hamburger as proudly as if they had the Hope Diamond tied up in a pickle carton. There were other millions who got mad, concluded 1) that they were living in an immoral age; 2) that somebody was to blame; and 3) that they were rapidly going broke. But if they got ugly with the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker they ended up eating eggplant. To get the goods you had to smile, smile, smile...
...What an incredible, easygoing place the Senate is!" he wrote. "As I stood in the lobby a boy in knickerbockers walked by with a carton of ice cream and a cardboard spoon...