Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 May 1891 — Reis in Brazil. [ARTICLE]

Reis in Brazil.

Hotels are few and til-conducted jtor Brazilian coast towns, bat there are excellent French end German restaurants in Bahia and Pornambuco. When one has the bill to settle be finds that the score runs into the thousands. The basis of currency is an imaginary unit, the reis, 1,000 of which make a miireis, worth apart from exchange, about 50 eents. The lowest nickel coin is 10Q reis, worth 5 cents. Below these are copper coins, 20 reis, bein«y equivalent to 1 cent If one dines with a friend at a restaurant the score will amount to 7.500 reis—a result startling I to the nninitiated. When real-estate transactions are conducted the figures rise into the millions, nnd when trade statistics are computed billions and trillions are brought in. Reversing the process, one pays 2,000 reis to a boatman to go ashore from a steamer, 1.000 reis or a miireis for a bottle of beer and some cheese. 500 reis to a guide for pilotage through a public building, 200 reis for a ride on a streetoar, 100 reis for a tarn on tne lift from lhe upper to the lower turn, and another kO reU fer haring his boots Slacked. ...... .