Gus & Frau

Irrevocably smirched seemed Gustav ("Pinochle Gus") Boess, famed Ober-Buergermeister of Berlin, when, during his tour of the U. S. last year, it appeared that Frau Boess had "bought" a magnificent fur coat for next to nothing from the Sklarek brothers, Berlin clothing contractors to whom fat municipal contracts had been awarded.

Ober-Buergermeister's trial was completed last week. Pretty Frau Boess sobbed in Court as though her heart would break.

"He d-d-d-didn't know!" she wept. "G-G-Gustav never knew I had bought the coat, or w-w-what I paid for it, or anything about it! Ooohooo. . . ."

The Court acquitted Herr Boess of "misdemeanor," censured him for "incorrect behavior," fined him one month's salary of 3,000 marks ($714). This left him free to retire last week ("because of poor health") and receive for life the handsome pension of a Berlin Ober-Buergermeister (equivalent to "Lord Mayor"), namely: 30,000 marks ($7,140) a year.

"Pinochle Gus's" retirement is effective Nov. 1. Right now the Civic Treasury of Berlin faces a deficit of some 65,000,000 marks ($15,470,000).

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