Page:The Tourist's California by Wood, Ruth Kedzie.djvu/41

GENERAL INFORMATION 23 concerning the preference for specie over bank- notes. A bill was tendered in payment for arti- cles purchased at a Market Street store in San Francisco. Before being accepted it was ques- tioningly submitted to an aisle-man who, while commending the clerk for her caution, made it clear that though but paper, it was as negotiable as the gold and silver pieces she was accustomed to receiving. But nowadays progressive newspapers may be bought for less than the traditional nickel, and one need not strain his purse or pocket with weighty funds wherewith to pay the expenses of a few days' journeying. And yet, in the contra- dictory way of humans, we miss the feel of the clean gold when notes are substituted, and come to understand one reason why they were formerly entirely disregarded for the coin of the Repub- lic. The " two-bits " of the Pacific Coast are equiva- lent to the two shillings of early days on the At- lantic; each bit equals twelve and a half cents. The term is rarely used in the singular. Likewise the storekeeper seldom " splits the nickel." Arti- cles are priced two for two-bits, or one for fifteen cents. This is a cause for complaint among Euro- peans who divide their cents into centimes and farthings. Visitors from " the States " (as Cali- fornians still designate all that lies east of the Si-