The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1892-04-14


Gently asked ''Why the hospital yacht,
to be sure, loaded down to the guards with
smallpox and yellow fever"
The first place on shore that foreigner
generally seeks is the establishment of
some money changer, in order to convert
his American gold or English sovereigns,
OF the coin of the last country he visited,
into the circulating medium of Brazil
And very much astonished will he be
when the changer hands over huge pile
of metal-copper, brass, iron and nickle,
lids and the ponderous brass tags that
landlords sometimes attach to door keys
to prevent them from being carried off in
the pockets OF their patrons. A very few
American dollars, exchange added, when
converted into the currency of this coun-
try, requires cart, rather than pocket
book, in which to take it away. Brazil
still adheres to the absurd old Portuguese
system of financial enumeration, in which
it takes two thousand reis to make what
we call half a dollar, the word ''reis'' be-
ing the plural of real. When refs are at
par one hundred Of them are worth about
five cents American money. What a hard
time of it Brazilian book-keepers must
have, with the long lines of figures which
represent the ordinary commercial tran
sactions of a banking OF mercantile house.
For example, a real. the unit of the none
tary system, is written 0S0O1 and is equal
to the value of one-twentieth of the U. S.
cent. There is no such coin in circulation,
the smallest being 10 refs. There is a
copper coin of 40 reis, and nickle coin of
100 refs, and another OF 200 reis Next
comes the paper money, in notes of one
thousand reis, called milreis. There are
two milreis, five, ten, twenty, thirty, fifty
and one hundred, to a maximum of five
hundred milreis, numerically expressed
this way-5OOsO0O Then there is an i'm
aginary denomination named a Conto,
which means thousand milreis, and is
expressed in paper :O00$. The par value
of the paper milreis is equal to about 81
cents American money; but of course it
varies with the times. On the day of the
revolution, Nov. 18th, 1889, it was at par,
and has never been since. A while ago it
was down to II cents, and to-day is up to
% cents.
A copper coin Of the old monarchy,
worth half a cent, still circulates largely
in Northern Brazil, which is fit only to
use in driving nails, Cor for paper weights,
being altogether too heavy to carry in any
pocket Though they lay around ever so
carelessly, nobody ever steals them, being
too burdensome to get away with. On
enquiring the price of living at hotel,
YOU are at first amazed to find that it is so
many milrcis per diem: and are absolutely
staggered when the laundry bill is pre-
sented in six figures, Fancy ll-pro-
portioned bank note worth five cents. 1t
takes eight of these hundred milrei bills
to pay for a horse-ca car ride out to the bo-
tanical gardens and back. In course of
-
that rather long drive you will observe
that the conductors pockets and the breast
of his coat bulge out more and more with
these bank notes, till by the time he is
oppressed with a dollar and Il half. he
looks like Il calelcssly- stuffed scare crow.
One of the bills closely resembles the
"greenback' that is so dear to our souls.
and has engraved upon its back, sides,
margin and four corners the satisfying
figures 300 The possession of Il few of
these makes one feel like a bloated bond
holder-untl he learns from sad eHperi-
ence how little they will buy This Bra
lillian grecnback bears the words 'sQuin-
hentos Refs, Imperio de BRAZIL and an
excellent likeness of poor Dom Pedro, 81
as does nearly all the paper money of the
country, though even the bilious looking
tiag-all greenwood and yellow-fe col
or-with its cross of the Order of Christ
and the sphere of the old Portuguese ex-
plorers, has changed somewhat since the
monarchy was murdered.
Speaking of these deceptive bills re-
minds me of story that is told of late
U. S. Consul to Bahia, Brazil, which is
worth repeating. AS the departing Con-
sui stepped aboard the steamer he handed
to his ''tenderfoot'' successor one of those
tempting looking 500 bills ssTake it.
take it, he said with sympathetic feel
ing, when the other would have rejected
so much prootfered wealth. ''Settlc with
my creditors, if | leave any behind and
never mind about the change. Just treat
the boys in my name whenever they call,
and keep my memory green. 1t happen
ed that a lot of ''the boys dropped in
that afternoon, and the joke cost the new
Consul the value of a pocket full of those
bills, they being worth at the time exact
ly % cents each.
so far as | am aware there is but one
currency in the world more intinitesimal
than that of Brazil. and that is the ante
diluvian small shells called cowries. which
circulate as money in Africa and India
a cowric being equal to about one tftieth
of an American cent.