Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1920-04-22
Mrs. w. H. Newell Writes Of Her
Visit to BaranquiIla in Colo
mbia
PRICES OF COMMODITIES
VERY HIGH, SHE WRITES
On Account of Weather Remain
ing Uniform, Eatables Do Not
Fluctuate In Value

Barranquilla is city of 10000 peo-
pie. 1t has many manufacturing plants
among which are flour mills Gmport-
ed wheat is used) coarse cotton
cloth, and thread from cotton raised
in Colombia, shoes and leather goods,
such as saddles, ETC., jewelry, cigars,
candy and mems clothes, not only for
this city but for many towns and
cities near by. The immense bak-
cries do all the baking for the city
and for hundreds of towns, since there
are no ovens in any of the homes. If
one has a baked chicken or turkey
for dinner, she prepares it for the Ov-
en-, then sends it out to be baked.
The stoves are built of brick in a
small block with two or four holes the
size of a small kettle. Over the holes
are CRATES, of iron or thin brick, and
on these charcoal is placed, anG blown
into fire with a bellows. IL takes
not less than an hour to get the first
fire in the morning, ard after that the
fire is not allowed to go ont during
the day. Yet keeping a fire is Il big
expense, since enough charcoal for
a days use in family of six, costs
from fifty to sixty cents day Little
donkeys are driven Through the
streets with several little sacks of
charcoal tied on either side, and a
man sitting on top Of the sacks. with
his legs crossed Oh the donkeys head.
He sells a sack holding about as much
as a pillow case would hold for three
dollars, worth a little more than three
in United States money. 1t is not al
ways as expensive as it is just now,
because the men and women who US
ually make charcoal are all busy pick
ing cotton.
Prices Are High
There are tiny little stores on near
ly every corner of the city, even in the
residence portion, except where the
best houses are. But most Of the
marketing is done at the city market,
covering four blocks, down by the
canal that leads to the Magdalena riv-
er. Here everything that one can
think of is for sale, in long open courts
with little box-like shops on all sides
of the courts. In the little shops are
shoes, jewelry, cloth of all sorts, gar
ments for women, children and men
(made in private homes by women)
In the courts women stand or squat by
small tables where are displayed ev-
cry thing that grows here and some
imported vegetables. In naming the
vegetables and fruits to be found here
I will attach the price at which they
are selling, which is about the price
of all year. Potatoes, $720 a bu. !;
sweet potatoes $4l20 a bu.; yam 400
a bu: yuca 1S0 bu.; plantain
large banana which must be cooked
to be eaten) three cent each; beets
carrots and turnips, each forty cents
a pound, or twenty-four dollars a
bushel; sweet corn, three cents an
ear; flour, twenty cents a pound ;
bread twenty-five cents a pound; milk
twenty cents a quart; eggs from "a
cents a dozen to 96 cents; meat from
27 cents to 35 cents a pound; butter
$50 a pound (when it can be obtained
which is less than half the time, as ii
is imported) rice, 20 cents pound
sugar, eighteen cents a pound; and
salt eight cents a pound. Coffee in
this land of coffee, is forty cents a
pound, and tea is eighty cents quar-
ter-pound, or $40 pound. Nothing is
cheap. l never saw such prices, an
where, and nothing is higher than il
has always been here, they say
Some things are even cheaper than
they were six or eight years ago. An
other thing here is that, since there
are really no seasons, prices stay
about the same all the year around
For example, eggs and milk do not &c
up and down as they do in the United
States winter and summer.
There are many native fruits that
have never heard of some of which
make good sauce. But all are high
Oranges ar seven cents apiece here
as it is too hot to grow then, AM
they must be brought from the interior
Apples are sixty cents pound
grapes are forty cents bunch. Peach
es, pears, plums, cherries, strawbel
ries, blackberries, currants, etc. etc
are unknown in this country. There ar