Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 September 1895 — New Way to Make Change. [ARTICLE]

New Way to Make Change.

The luxury of “small change” is so common in the United States that, like most other common things, It is uot fully appreciated. In many parts of the East coins of small denominations are very scarce, and the traveler has to l>ay a premium for “coppers.” In Constantinople, for example, a merchant in tin*bazaar will often refuse a sale if his customer offers him toQ big a piece of money. It may readily be Imagined that where “change” Is so jealously held hack, some queer complications must arise. In this connection an American traveler describes au amusing experience of his own in the ancient Greek city of Corinth. After a tramp to the top of the famous acropolis or rock citadel of Corinth, he returned to the town with an extraordinary appetite. He went into an estiatoria, or restaurant, one of those peculiar Greek cookshops where the various viands are all kept stewing side by side on a long clay range, and customers are allowed to inspect each in turn, take a sniff of each, and a taste if they will, and finally to order the one they like best, or dislike the least. Being so hungry, the traveler ordered a generous dinner, aud ate heartily. The bill amounted to three drachmae and a dekara, about sixty cents. He gave the proprietor a five-drachmae bill; that is to say, he tore a ten-drach-mae bill in two aud gave him half, that being the quaint Greek way of making five-drachmae bills, when desired. “But, sir, I have no change,” ejaculated the proprietor. “And I have no smaller piece of money,” answered the traveler. The crafty Greek scratched his head, and tried to think of some way of satisfying his customer without having to give up any of his own precious small change. At length he triumphantly called out: “Eureka! I have it! You sit down again and eat some more, to make up.” Unfortunately, the American no longer desired to “eat some more,” and had to go away without his change.