The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1888-10-18
/ LETTER FROM REV. J. ". WOLL-
ING,
Homo Life In Brazil.
Southern Christian AdcOcate.

For some time | have been thinking 1t
might not be amiss to write you something
on the important and substantial subject
of what we eat and what it cost; for
though we are engaged in the high spiri-
tual employ of winning souls for Christ,
you will understand that we do not dis.
dain such carnal practices as eating and
drinking. However, it is no constantly
recurring question: what shall we eat
or what shall we drink? for, by grace
Divine, we seek primarily, the kingdom
of God and the blessed righteousness
which there reigns, and this having done,
re have the unfailing promise that all
these things shall be added. And then
under this general promise we have the
particular fact that a strong, sympathetic
Church at home has not only our being,
but our we'll being, at heart; and while
the object, primary and most important,
aimed at, is the advancement of the cause
of Christ, The means to this end is the
preservation of the workmen in the field.
So, whatever may be said about the i'm.
portance of this subject, it is literally a
substantial one and of daily occurrence.
AS in all countries, 30 here, there is a
style ofsubsistence on very cheap scale.
Those who live on rice and beans and
fruit can live for very little, and this
constitutes the living of large part of
the population. The universal drink is
coffee, and the very plainest person in the
humblest home can set before you such
coffee as 1 do not remember ever to have
in the United States. As to the price of
these things-rice, beans, and coffee
they cost Just about what they do in the
States. You will understand that these
are grown in Brazil, and in the rural.
parts cost nothing more than to put the
seed in the ground and give the crop one
hoeing. AS you may suppose, foreigners
cannot live upon these things. As DR..
Sane, an American physician in San
Paulo, says, to a stranger in the climate
rice is considered moonshine, the beans
arc so strong that ouly working men can
digest them, and for couple OF years
most of The fruits can only be eaten by
new corners at great risks to health. So
you can see that strangers, are reduced to
the necessity of seeking their provisions
from abroad.
Let US take breakfast ofoat meal,
ham and eggs, hominy, bread and butter
and coffee. The oat meal comes from
Germany, and is quite expensive hams,
until oflate, came from Russia and Eng
land, aud cost IS cents per pound !; now
they can be gotten from San Paulo and
cost 35 cents per pound. Eggs in Rio
de Janeiro cost 80 to 60 cents dozen;
10 the interior, 25 to 80 cents per dozen.
The corn and flour comes from Russia
and the United States, the flour costing
from SIS to $18 a barrel, the corn higher
than iu the United States: the butter
from France, and costs rs cents per pound;
the coffee from Brazil, and costs Is cents.
per pound.
Ifyou 90 to furnish a house, it is the
same thing. a dozen, small ordinary
chairs cost $95, and if fanytbing nice, $780,
A plain bedstead, made in a shop here
costs $40, and straw mattress to put on
it $40 more. A handsome parlor set
costs $500 and upwarda.
From my personal experience can
say that $3.50, or, at the most, $500 in
South Carolina, will go further in
ordinary expenses than 81 900 in Brazil:
These figures will give you some idea OF
the prices of things in this country, where
everything is brought from abroad and
paid for with cafe. Some things .are
cheap. To. day bought beautiful oran
ges two for one cent and bananas at the
same price, but apples are brought from
Portugal and the United States, and
cost from ten to fifteen cents each. But
these prices of no concern to the majority
of these people who live in houses very
scantily furnished, arrayed in thin cotton
clothes, with slippers on their feet, and
eat few things brought from abroad. !
ought to say that the horse, which is
used very much in this country over steep
narrow roads, where only a horse or mule
can 20, can be bought from $S5 to $50.
They are not fine looking, but tough and
sensible, and many oftbem finely gated.
Such are some of the facts of our every
day life out here, where, after all, our
greatest privation is to be away from the
friends and many associations of the home
life in the United States. But the world
must be won for Christ, and no doubt all
will be right and congenial in the home
above.
p;ron1nob1 Rr0zu