Todd war diary, 3 August 1914-29 February 1916 / Arthur Todd - Page 315
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[Page 315]
[fore]shores seem almost mean. To sum up, Sydney for ships Rio for scenery would seem to be a just estimate. All the mountain peaks around Rio are linked by aerial railways, and the sensation of swinging along suspended on a cable is nearly as good as flying. Rio, as everyone knows, is the capital of Brazil and is a large well-built city about the size of Melbourne or Sydney. The general lay of the town reminds one of Melbourne, and for narrow, crooked lanes like the Sydney streets one must go into the back parts of the town. The main street reminds one very much of Collins Street, Melbourne, and one saw more motor cars per minute than are to be seen in any other city of the world.
The Brazilians are sufficiently democratic to run two classes in their electric trams. The second class was occupied by the dreadful collection of apparent cutthroats and villains which the picture drama always associates with South America. The great drawback is the cost of everything; though when we arrived there money was scarce and prices were falling. Owing to the war the Government had not been able to raise the usual loan, and one was told that the civil servants had not been paid for months and were making up their salaries in other less conventional ways, mostly by doing a little polite smuggling. Consequently when we went ashore with English sovereigns we got a very liberal rate of exchange. Gold was almost unknown. The coinage is queer, and one got a shock after making a small purchase on being confronted with a bill for 3000 Res. It was a