Brazil is a very expensive country in which to live as well as travel. Nearly every article used in the house is imported, and the import duties are very high. Not only that, but the tradesmen expect an exorbitant profit in many instances. A pair of American shoes costing not to exceed $4.00 in the States will retail here for $10.00. An American who lives there came back from a visit to the States and brought back with him, among other articles, a rug and a piano. The rug cost him $20.00 in New York, and the duty amounted to $26.00. I did not learn what the piano was worth, but it cost him nearly $200.00 to get it through the customs. All goods for ladies’ wear and men’s furnishing are sold at correspondingly high prices. Table supplies are very high also. Most of the grocery sundries are imported and bring good prices. Even the produce of the country is dear. Vegetables in the market sell as high as with us, while fruit, in this land which nature endowed so richly for fruit culture, is sold almost if not entirely as high as in New York. Beef is the one item that is comparatively cheap. Butter retails at 50 cents and upward a pound, eggs at 35 and 40 cents a dozen in the summer season, and all kinds of poultry for the table are correspondingly high. Café prices are expensive, except for the little cups of coffee, and it is a mystery to me how the majority of the people live, for wages are not nearly so good as in the United States. Rent is another expensive item, so that it must take every dollar the average man earns to keep up, and he cannot have anything left for a savings account.