I could write much of Buenos
Ayres, with its carnicerias, where a leg of mutton may be bought
for 20 cts., or a brace of turkeys for 40 cts.; its almacenes,
where one may buy a pound of sugar or a yard of cotton, a measure of
charcoal (coal is there unknown) or a large sombrero, a package of
tobacco (leaves over two feet long) or a pair of white hemp-soled
shoes for your feet - all at the same counter. The customer may
further obtain a bottle of wine or a bottle of beer (the latter
costing four times the price of the former) from the same assistant,
who sells at different prices to different customers.
There the value of money is constantly changing, and almost every day
prices vary. What to-day costs $20 to-morrow may be $15, or, more
likely, $30. Although one hundred and seventy tons of sugar are
annually grown in the country, that luxury is decidedly expensive. I
have paid from 12 cts. to 30 cts. a pound. Oatmeal, the Scotsman's
dish, has cost me up to 50 cts. a pound.
Coming again on to the street you hear the deafening noises of the
cow horns blown by the streetcar drivers, or the pescador shrilly
inviting housekeepers to buy the repulsive-looking red fish, carried
over his shoulder, slung on a thick bamboo.
