Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1890-04-09
AMONG THE BRAzlLlANS,
Scenes In tho Marketable at Hotels
An Elastic Currency.

| Scenes In tho Marketable at Hotels
An Elastic Currency.
Among the most interesting novelties
to the traveller in Brazilian city arc
markets and the bird bazars The mar
ket Is ordinarily to be regarded as the
pulse OF the town. If it be well-served,
clean and orderly the blood oircula ton
OF the community may safely be con-
sldered as excellent. Judged by this
test there are few If any coast towns in
Brazil In which there is sound digestion.
The markets are dirty, disorderly and
unattraetive. There are scanty and ILL.,
managed displays OF meats. The poor
live on jerked beef of inferior grades. CT
nsh there Is larger assortment, hut
fresh vegetables are lacking. Even tho
display OF tropical fruits is disappointing.
bahla oranges are delicious, but not SUI
perlor to the best Florida oranges seen
in the New York market. Mangoes are
abundant and cheap. Bananas are
smaller, but more delicate in flavor, than
| those seen in the Northern market. The
most delicious fruit to be found in Brazil
is the pineapple. Northerners who eat
this fruit weeks after it has been picked
in its green state have only faint idea
OF its sweetness, lusciousness and de-.
licious flavor. Here the pineapple is
picked when tho tropical sun has per.
fected its chemical work and the fruit
is ready to melt in the mouth It would
be an affront to nature to sprinkle sugar
upon it when sliced. 1t is mellow, over.
running with juice, and of incompatible
flavor. The finest pineapples are those
found in Pernambuco but the fruit
grows almost everywhere in Brazil.
There are other fruits, such as alligator
pears, melons, chirimoyas and sapotes,
and great variety of tropical
nuts. Fruit is cheap here, the finest
pineapples being sold for three or
four cents to the experienced native,
and for ton cents to the unwary travel.
er' Parrots are also inexpensive in the
bazars adjoining the market. The bird
does not seem to acquire the Portuguese
tongue readily, for among the many
have seen have not found one accom-.
plished linguist. The plumage, how
ever, is OF bewildering brilliance and
beauty when hundreds of Thorn are seen
together. The parrots are exhibited in
close proximity to monkey-cages, the
American tradition Of a monkey-and.
parrot time apparently not having be-
come current in Brazil. The monkeys
are OF all ages, sizes, colors and species,
but nearly all that are seen in tho
bazars are UNFRAMED, the purchasers be.
ing expected to begin as we'll as to com.
plete the process of education.
Hotels are few and ill-conduoted in
Brazilian coast towns, but there are OK.
celent French and German restaurants
in Bahia and Pernam buco. A good table
dhote dinner of half dozen courses is
served, and excellent wines are to be
had at reasonable rates. When one has
the bill to settle he finds that the score
runs into the thousands. The basis of
the currency is an imaginary unit, the
reis, 1000 Of which make a milreis,
worth, apart from exchange, about 60
cents. The lowest nickel coin is 100
reis, worth S cents. Below these are
copper coins, 90 reis being the smallest
l have seen-equivalent to q cent. II
one dimes, with a. friend at restaurant
the score will amount to Z, 500 reis-a re-
suit startling to the uninitiated.
When real-estate transactions are
conducted the figures rise into the mill
ions, and when trade statistics are com.
puted billions and tillions are brought
in. Reversing the process one pays o.
900 reis to- a boatman to go shore from
steamer, 1000 reis, or a milreis, for
bottle Of beer and some cheese, 500 reis
to guide for ride on street-car, 100
reis for turn on the lift from the upper
to the lower turn, and another 100 reis
for having his boots BACKED. This
elastically to- poverty, for even beggar
must have some consciousness
of afiuence when a 100-reis nick.
ell is dropped into his cap.
For the American who comes
South with feeling of honest
pride in the fact that specie payments
have been resumed in his country, and
that paper money there is as good as
gold, an hour of humiliation is in re-
serve. When he exchanges his shining
$40 gold piece into Brazilian currency
he receives for at current rates of ex-
change eighteen milreis-that is, $4,000
reis; but the eighteen milreis are only
equivalent to $9-that is to say 81 has
been sacrificed in the exchange. To
complete his dissatisfaction the paper
money is exceedingly dirty and ire
deemable in coin. Gold and silver are
never seen here, yet are heavily dis
counted when foreigners bring them in,
an ineonvertible currency commanding
heavy premium:-Bahia Letter in N.
Y. Tribune.
A Few DOn'ts for Mon.
Don't neglect your business.
Don't misrepresent any thing.
Don't forget you are gentleman.
! Don't tell every body your business.
Don't make any promises you can not
fulfill.
Don't send man to- do work you car
do yourself.
Don't forget that the poor have feel,
ings as we'll as the rich.
Don't 20 off on frolic when you have
business to attend to.
|: Don't fail to keep yourself we'll posted
in ovorv 1atai1 Of vOur husiness