Roanoke Rapids herald. [volume] (Roanoke Rapids, N.C.) 1914-192?, 1921-07-15

that the price Of dollar In coppers
runs from 100 to 140, instead of the
seemingly logical 100.
This state of things gives rise to
the oh, by the way habit. Foreign
stores will accept up to 80 cents in
Small money but more than that
amount must be paid in big money
A woman under such conditions de-
velops a poor memory and yields to
sudden impulse. She buys something
for 90 cents and thus completes the
transaction. But before she leaves
the counter, she says oh, by the way
and purchases another 80 cents worth,
thus keeping dime and two or three
cOppers for herself. The store gets
Its money back by returning seven
dimes as change for a 30-cent pur-
chase and thus makes its income look,
not like 30 cents, but like A to so,
Trip Cost 5000 Less Than Nothing.
I'm Tifis, In the spring Of 1918, the
rouble was selling at Is to the dollar.
| bought 5000, for there was no tell
ing how long 1t would take to get out
Of Russia at that time. When
reached VladivostOk, some weeks later,
the japanese were preparing to send
an army into Siberia and were buying
up roubles. The rate there was 6.35
roubles for dollar. Travelled from
the Caucasus to the Pacific and took
nearly two months to do it, and when
l changed my money at the end Of
the trip, 1t had cost me about $500 less
thap nothing. The professor with
whom l had Travelled for several
months In Russia and Turkestan had
converted all his gold into roubles be-
fore leaving America, and had been
spending roubles that cost him 30
cents each which bought no more than
those I had bought In Tifis for 8.
ION my recent trip to India / ex-
pected to cross Persia on my way from
Eastern Europe, and since American
gold had been worth four times as
much as American paper In the Pers-
ian bazaars In 1918, / carried small
bag Of gold with me. The trip across
Persia proved impossible, and 1t was
not till the eve Of sailing for home
that l sold some of the gold which l
had carried for thousands Of miles.
and which had caused me endless ar
guments at nearly every boundary.
Most Of It paid to the United States
customs on my arrival, after having
carried 1t for ten months, and hum
dred thousand miles. There were
only two times on the trip when /
could have sold 1t for as much as !
could get for letter Of credit.
Prefer Letters Of Credit.
II have never heard of anybody
making money on exchange by accept
ing expert advice, and would never
want to offer 1t to anyone. But when
leave American soil again, all my
money is going to be invested in
letter of credit and enough travellers
checks to help me out when | want
only a small sum. Boundaries reduce
currency In way that alarms the
traveller and an American letter of
credit is fixed at any point where there
Is a bank. In the varying prices that
one can get when merchandising his
American currency, the gold coin
sometimes wins, the silver coin sell
dom, and the greenback most often.
But in the IS countries | have just
visited, my letter of credit beat every
other one of the many ways | carried
my money.
"Once in a while fortune smiles on
the traveller. Last December, in Bonn
bay, | tried to cash Colombo draft
The bank could not quote a rate and
sent 1t to Its Colombo office, advancing
me such money as | needed in the
meantime. A week later, In Karachi
| received the balance Of the amount,
There had been bookkeeping and tele-
graph charges. But the rupee had de-
creased In value during the time 1t
took to complete the deal, and the re-
suit was that l received nearly two |
hundred more rupees than would
have had IL the draft had been marked