El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1915-06-12

that terrible five years Of war. Thi
/ total number Of Paraguayans is noE
/. less than a million, OF which abOu
Z One-tenth have their home in Asu 4
7 cion- The bulk of the citizens are Par
3 aguayans, although there are many
I Argentines and Italians and a sprink-
! ling Of Spaniards, Germans and French
; Some Hotels Good
The city has a half dozen hotels an
some OF them are said to be good
/ have struck one Of the bad ones. II
I is the Observation-Disclosures. a preten-
uous building on the main street II
Z has three stories. surrounding a patio
z which is rooted over with glass The
ing room and adjoining 1t is the
kitchen.
You get only two meals a day IN
Asuncion- Your first breakfast is NOT
a meal. It consists Of a little black
coffee and bread You may have that
when rising, but nothing more until
the course luncheon at noon THIS
begins with bologna sausage and some
green stuff as appetlZers, a soup which
is half macaroni or alphabet dOug1,
boiled beef out of which the soup IS
made The puchero is often half bones,
and the bones look like those Of the
neck After that come the entrees 9r
entrades. including sometimes a fish,
and then beefsteak or roast with a
salad and desert the dinner is about
the same as the luncheon The menus
look well and seem satisfying. but the
food is bad. The cooking is awful and
my stomach cries for the fleshpots Of
home
Two Rooms, 500 n Day.
And what do you think We pay at the
hotels here2 ] have fairly good rooms
for myself and stenographer. and the
charges are made on the American
plan-that is, both board and room for
a fixed sum inclusive. The price IS
just 500 per day. The sum seems ex-
travagant until you figure the actual
value in Paraguayan dollars worth
less than six cents. Then the amount
is under Sc in gold a day, or about 50
a person I cashed some English gold
this morning. It was in sOvereigns,
which viii bring S4-86 each at our
American banks I received $50 for
each Of my gold pieces, changing five
pounds and getting in return S4.45 IN
paper.
Native Money Looks Good.
And still the paper money looks
good It was made in New York and
engraved by the American Bank Note
company. One of the hundred-dollar
bills has the Niagara Of South America
on one side Of it; and as looked at II
I wondered whether this was TO indi-
cate the great fall in the value OF the
currency. That hundred dollar bill was
worth less than IS American. This
makes it so that one has TO be always
calculating TO keep track Of his eX
penses. You must not be surprised that
4 cab fare costs SIS, and that the ordin-
airy jitne, IL hired Outright, would be
worth at least SIS an hour. I have
just refused to buy a knit hammock
for which a woman asked me $3.50, al
though I was tempted to pay S20e for
a lace collar and cuffs The regular
price of this new Spaper, were it sold
here. would be about 81 Paraguayan
That is what certain journals cost
here
Fancy Salaries Are DeceivinE. ,.
In connection with the money, the
government officials here seem to get
extravagant salaries, although in
reality they receive far less than our
near statesmen at home. The president
has $4,000 a month; cabinet ministers
receive $4,000 a month and the con-
gressmen get half as much. In actual
values the president has a little over
$1,000 a year, the cabinet less than
$4,000 and the congressman only a little
over $1,000 a year
Country Really Prosperous.
Notwithstanding this shrinkage OF
the currency. Asuncion is prosperous.
There are many banks and cambios and
they are all doing we'll The Bank OF
the Republic has a capital of 5000. 600
IN gold, and its business last year
amounted to more than 5000 600, 900 in
real money. The bank pays a - per
cent dividend The BancO Mercantile
has a capital Of $50 600 .O0O in paper.
1t has been in existence a long time