Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1915-02-04
ALL KINDS COIN
IN VERA cruz
For the Price Of Two &c. Postage
Stamps One Can Buy His
Breakfast.
CONFEDERATE BILLS PASSED
Even Cigar Store Coupons Are Palmed
Off on Unsuopecting
Natives.

Vera Cruz these days. With an Ameri.
can dollar, worth five times as much as
a Mexican peso (and they are the
same in size, too), two 2.cent American
stamps are worth 20 centavos in Mex
lean 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 la Constitution,
and opposite the ancient parochiai
church, which, in 1874, was dedicated
to Nuestra Sonora de la Asuncion-
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 Diiigencias, facing the plaza, the
Mexican refugees of substance, the
erstwhile federal generals, the Cientif-
icos, the ousted ofriceholders under
Victoriano Huerta, and the OFFICERS OF
the United States Army and Navy do
likewise, albeit not quite so cheaply.
For 1t will take the price of three q
cent postage stamps to get the coffee
and sweetbread in the Diligencias
portales.
Not that the coffee is bit better in
one place than in the other, and the
bread all comes from the same bak-
cries. 1t is all matter of caste and
location, just as one may get the same
beer downtown in New York for
cents glass that he must pay %
cents for in marble tiled and gilded
cafe Of some ultra-fashionable hotel up
town. In both portales the coffee is
black as ink and strong as aqua fortis,
and II Is served in tumblers with
plenty of milk to dilute it and make it
palatable.
But, for all this, the cost of living is
much higher in Vera Cruz than it used
e. to be-before the American occupation
q. of the port. That is, it is far higher in
Mexican money. and much cheaper in
gold money. When a Mexican peso
was worth so cents gold one could buy
the coffee and bread for Is centavos
instead Of the 20 it costs now, but then
1t would have cost 'ia cents American
money. instead of the cents it costs
now, with exchange at five to one. The
man who is paid a salary in American
money can make 1t go a great deal
further now than he could formerly,
but the man with salary in Mexican
money is hard put to it to make both
ends meet
Two years ago the Mexican who was
making $50 week, Mexican money,
was getting the same as the American
who was earning S25 week, gold.
Now, supposing each gets the same
salary, the Mexican still has his so
pesos a week and the American, with
his s25 gold has 125 pesos, two and
half times as much as the Mexican. II
the Mexican has to pay pesos day
to support his family he has only Is
pesos week left over, but the Ameri.
can, after paying out pesos day, has
80 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 bills,
which were printed by the millions in
Mexico City, or the Constitutionalist
bills of Carranza or Villa. The frac-
tional currency bills are even more
varied, but no one ever thinks of re-
fusing one, no matter by whom issued.
Many are issued by local banks In Vera
Cruz. Others are in the form of tickets
very like milk tickets in the United
States. All are equally good here.
Street car fares are 6 centavos or
. Is cents gold. A first-class fare from
Vera Cruz to Mexico City, including a
berth in Pullman, costs $3.50 Mexi-
can, or 1892 American money, for an
all-night or all-day journey.
An American Army officer jokingly
offered a peddler of Mexican carved
coffee wood canes 25-cent United
Cigar Stores coupon the other day.
The officer had had 1t in his pocket
ever. since he came from New York.
The Mexican pedd.er was willing to
take 1t for $125, Mexican, but the Of.
fcer told him that 1t was no good and
was not money.
"Oh, 81 senior; 1t Is quite good" In
sisted the Mexican. ~ will have no
trouble in passing 1t again"
A $50 Confederate States bill was
passed the other day at curio store,
and the man who passed 1t received
pesos worth of merchandise and 9S
pesos in money. The curio dealer was
greatly surprised when he was told
that the Confederate bill was. worth
only a few cents as curiosity. Any
piece of paper looking like bank bill
and printed in English, with figures on
it, would pass for its alleged face
value here among the Mexieans. II
would not have to be counterfeit
money. Stage money, advertisements
any old thing that looked like money
would do.