The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1875-05-06
The Cost of Living.


NIT such an atrocity now is regarded as either
very insane or very daring-we state propo-
sition which points moral and adorns tale.
In the times before 1860, when everything
was cheap, $500 went long way, and the man
who had reached that enviable position might
safely hope to do something for posterity with
out incurring an immediate resort to the Poor
House. But the evils of war, and the war
since the war, have changed all that. Not
only has the cost of living become serious
barrier to matrimony, but the ideas of both
men and women have suffered transformation.
We never knew, either at the North or South,
how happy, how blest we were, until the pros
pect shifted from flush times to hard and grind
ing seasons. For while, large salaries pre-
vailed to make amends for increased expenses,
domestic and otherwise; but the inevitable
collapse has come at last, and lett many OF US
high and dry on beach of mild despair.
How are we to adapt ourselves to altered cir
cumstances Gums {? That is the question. The only
onlv way We perceive is to practice the severest
economy; to make everything we purchase 60
twice as far as it did before; to cut off all sur
plus servants to do much of the work that
hired help has hitherto done; to have the
courage of wearing old Clothes to bring back
the women folk to that almost lost art of mend
ing, darning and patching their own raiment
as we'll as that of their husbands and children !;
to indulge in nothing for mere show; to rent
smaller houses, and, if possible remove from
town altogether; to restrain habits of appetite,
or abandon them altogether; to take care of
small change, and not squander it because it
looks like such trife; to initiate, in word,
those of foreign descent who grow prosperous
by knowing how to exist comfortably on what
we waste without any necessity for so doing.
These are not easy or pleasant things to do,
but they are what the stringency of the times
demands. On the other hand, the landlord
must be in line if he can, with the new dis
pensation. Is house rent too high Then it
must be lowered. Are any of the necessities
ty of purchasers? Then they must be marked
down. Upon this theme the New York Times
has an article so full of sense, and so happily
put into expression, that we give it conspicu-
GUS insertion. The drift of the article is II
unison with the demands Of the American
Babylon, but it applies, pari pass", to all por-
tions of the country. We quote:
'Some prices have fallen considerably. Some
have hardly sunk at ALL Rentals have resist
ed obstinately. They are yet out of all pro-
portion to the income of the average tenant
The frmness with which rents maintain them
selves is very easily explained. Houses are
not like stocks of goods, constantly renewed.
Money once in them remains in them usually
for some time. If Mr.. Stewards dry goods
fail to 90 off, he drops the prices, and buys in
a new stock at the lower figures. But If Mr..
Astor's houses and stores fall in rent, the re-
duction looks like a permanent diminution OF
income. The actual loss may be the same; !;
but your dry goods merchant looks forward to
a turn in the market, while your landlord COM
plains that his money does not bring him
simple interest,"
"But most real estate throughout the country
which changed hands between 1868 and 1873
is bound sooner or later to rent at rates that
will not pay net interest of seven per cent
upon its purchase money The difficulty is to
make landlords see this fact, and meantime
the tenants suffer. That is one important item
! in the extravagant cost of living, and it is
quite an inevitable one. The others are, per-
haps, less So We believe that most of our
readers will agree with us in thinking that
dress, for men and boys as we'll as for women
and girls, is more expensive than formerly.
The several articles cost more; fashions change
more frequently; the changes are more radical,
and the subseryiency to fashion-it is hard
word but just one-is greater in a mark
ed degree Leaving out of the question, for
the time being, the ladies, who, perhaps, have
had their full desert in the way Of criticism,
does it not accord with the general observation
of men Of forty that young men and boys from
twenty-five down to fourteen dress far more
extravagantly than the same class dressed
twenty years since? The school boy, whose
coat is not cut in the latest style, or whose hat
and shoes are not as fresh as if their wearer's
income were of his own earning and unlimited
in amount, is an exception. Linen made up
at home is curiosity almost unique, though
| the cost of material forms but small part of
the price of furnishing goods, and the cost of
labor could readily be saved. Style we be-
lieve, is the missing Ingredient which home.
made linen lacks, and which youngsters of
much is spent on many half grown stripliug's
shirts and collars and cuffs as would have
bought his father a whole suit when at the
boys age. The girls, meantime, are by no
means behind their brothers. They have their
fashions, as inexorable, as variable, and very
crown crown sisters. I If by chance simplicity reigns
for few months, the charming misses soon
tire of it, and something new, and expensive
as well, is introduced. This is matter GER
tainly capable of correction. There is abso-
lutely no sense in it, and no excuse for it,
except that Mrs. A does not like to have her
boys and girls looked down upon by those of
Mrs. B, while perhaps at the same time Mrs.
B is straining every nerve to keep up with Mrs:
a in the extravaganza of the young ones
clothing. Perhaps if dozen sensible women,
whose children associate with each other, were
to come together and agree upon combined
movement toward simplicity and economy,
they might make beginning of the end to the
heavy burdens the fathers purses are now COM
PEELED to bear.''
The extracts above given are rather longer
than we have space for, but they are entitled
to careful perusal. There is one element not
touched upon by the Times, but which deserves
consideration. 1t is this When misfortune
enters a family it should be the signal for eve
ry member of it to rally to each other not
only with beautiful zeal for the eonmon
good, but also with love trannscendng the
love of prosperity. How easily can the father
and husband bear reduction of his salary, if