Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1921-05-10


but eleven or twelve. So that the price
Of a dollar in coppers runs from 13D
TO 1I0, instead OF the seemingly logi-
cal 100.
This state Of things gives rise TO
the oh, by the way habit. Foreign
stores will accept up to so cents in
small money but more than that
amount must be paid in big money.
4 woman under such conditions de-
velops a poor memory and yields to
sudden impulse. She buys something
(or so cents and thus completes the
transaction. But before she leaves the
counter, she says oh, by the way and
purchases another fifty cents worth,
thus keeping dime and two or three
ccppers for herself. The store gets its
money back by returning seven dimes
as change for 80 cent purchase and
thus makes it's income look, not like
30 cents. but like "A to so.
Trip Cost $2C0 Less Than Nething
an Tiflis, in the spring Of 1913, the
rouble was selling at 10 to the dollar.
I bought 5000, for there was no tell
ing how long it would take to get out
of Russia at that time. When ] reach
ed Vladivostok, some weeks later, the
Japanese were preparing to send an
army into Siberia and were buying up
roublcs. The rate -here was 6.3a
roubles for a dollar. I Travelled from
the Caucasus to the Pacific and took
nearly two months to do it, and when
I changed my money at the end Of The
trip, it had cost me about 5000 less
than nothing. The professor with
whom had travelled for several months
in Russia and Turkestan had convert
ed all his gold into roubles before
leaving America and had been spend.
ing roubles that cost him 80 cents
each which bought no more than those
had bought in Tiflls for eight.
ION my recent trip to India en-
pected to cross Persia on my way
from Eastern Europe and since Amer
lean gold had been worth four times
rs much as American paper in the
Persian bazaars in 1918, I carried n
small bag Of gold with me. The trip
across Persia proved Impossible and
it was not ill the eve OF sailing for
home that | sold some of the gold
which I had carried for thousands OF
miles and which had caused me end
less arguments at nearly every boun-
dairy. Most of it I paid to the United
States Customs on my arrival after
having carried it for. ten months and a
hundred thousand miles. There were
only two times on the trip wcen ]
could have sold it for as much as I
could get for letter Of credit.
Prefer Letters of Credit and TravelA
ers' Checks.
.T have never heard Of anybody
making money on exchange by accept
ing expert advice and I would never
want TO offer it to anyone. Butrwhen
I leave American soil again, all my
money is going to be invested in a
letter Of credit and enough travellers
checks to help me out when>I want
only a small sum. Boundaries reduce
currency in a way that alarms the
traveller and an American letter OF
credit is fine 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 eighteen countries | have
Just visited, my letter OF credit beat
every other one of the many ways !
carl led my money.
"Once in while Fortune smiles on
the Traveller. Last December. in Bonn
bay, | tried TO cash n Colombo draft.
The bank could not quote rate and
sent it to It's Colombo office, advanc-
ing 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 I received nearly two
hundred more rupees than ould
have had If tho draft had been marked
Bombay instead of Colombo"