The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1914-11-19
VERA CRUZ HAS
LOTS OF MONEY
But 1t Is of Many Kinds and
Needs Censor.
ACCEPT CONFEDERATE BILL.

American Money Three Times as
Valuable as Mexican Scrip-Secret
Service Watchful.
For the price of two twO-cent post
age stamps one may get a breakfast
of coffee and sweet bread in Vera
Cruz these days. for with an Amer
lean dollar, worth five times as much
as a Mexican peso (and they are of the
same size. too, two twO-cent Ameri-
can stamps are worth 20 centavos i'll
Mexican money, which is a sufficient
sum to buy the coffee and bread That
is the price in the lesser portales. the
sidewalk restaurant and drinking
place just off the Plaza de Ia COnsti
tucion and opposite the ancient paro-
chial church. which in 1874 was dedi
| Gated to Nuestra Sonora de- la Asun-
| cion-Our Lady of the Assumption.
In these portales the men of the mid
! die classes and the enlisted men of the
| American army and navy sit about the
! tables and drink their coffee or beer
or what they please, while in the next
| block, under the portales of the Hotel
! Diligencias, facing the plaza, the Mex
| lean refugees of substance. the erSt-
while federal generals, the cientifcOs,
| the ousted officeholders under VictO-
| riano Huerta and the officers of the
| United States army and navy do like
wise. albeit not quite so cheapy, for
! it will take the price of three two-cent
| postage stamps to get the coffee and
sweet bread in the Diligencias por-
tales.
Not that the coffee is Il bit better in
one place than in the other, and the
bread all comes from the same baker
les. 1t is all matter of caste and
location, just as one may get the same
beer downtown in New York for ;
cents q glass that he must pay % cents
for in marble tiled and gilded cafe of
some ultra fashionable hotel uptown
In both portales the coffee is black as
ink and strong as aqua FORTS.
Gold Buys More.
But for all this the cost of living is
: much higher in Vera Cruz than it used
p to be-befOre the American occupation
Of the port. That is. it is far higher in
) Mexican money and much cheaper in
|
was worth 30 cents gold one could buy
the coffee and bread for Is centavos in
stead of the 20 it costs now. but then
it would have cost ~ cents in Amer
lean money instead Of the cents it
costs now, with exchange at five to
one.
Two years ago the Mexican who was
making $50 a week in Mexican money
/ was getting the same as the American
} who was earning $50 a week gold.
Now, supposing each gets the same
l salary; the Mexican still has his 20
pesos a week, and the American with
his $25 gold has 125 pesos. two and Il
half times as much as the Mexican
If the Mexican has to pay ) pesos a
day to support his family he has only
IL pesos a week left over, but the
American after paying out pesos I
, day has 90 pesos left over.
All sorts of Mexican money passes
: in Vera Cruz nowadays at its face
value no matter whether it is in the
form of National bank bills, Huertista
v bills, which were printed by the mil
lions in the City of Mexico. or the Con
StitutiOnalist bills of CarranZa or Villa
Q The fractional currency bills are ever
= more varied, but no one ever thinks OF
e refusing one, no matter by whom is
1t sued. Many are issued by local bank,
n in Vera Cruz. Others are in the form
le of tickets-very like milk tickets in the
L United States. All are equally goo(
Sc here. Street car fares are centavos
"a or 10 cents gold. \ first class fare
! | from Vera Cruz TO the CITY of Mexico
including a berth in Pullman, cost:
. S19.60 Mexican, or 1892 American
~ money, for an all night or all da.
10 journey.
lie Confederate Bill Passed.
+ A twenty dollar Confederate bill wa
al passed the other day at a curio store
and the man who passed it received
- pesos worth of merchandise and o
- pesos in money. The curiO dealer wa
greatly surprised when he was tol,
that the Confederate bill was wort
only a few cents as a curiosity. An,
: piece of paper looking like a bank hi
I and printed in English, with figures o.
it, would pass for its alleged face valu
Il here among the MeXicans 1t woul
not have to be counterfeit money
4 Stage money, advertisements, any oil
+ thing that looked like money would dt
4 Luckily for the Mexicans, there is
\ first class secret service here under til
j American rule, and suspicious chara,
I tPrS are hustled ont of the MORT a