Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1876-02-12
EUROPEAN ECoNoMY.

! Mr.. c. c. Fulton, OF the Baltimore Ameri-
1 can, thinks the Americans have to learn
| Europeans. He says that while In America
1 every family must have q house OF the
own, In Europe, especially In the large cities,
their houses are SO built as both To take up
less space tor rather To allow no space 10 De
wasted) and to furnish more accommo Ia
lions. one honse in Berlin or Paris Will or,
give each family rs much room as a family
here uses mot counting the empty third
pays sio0 for yearly rent a European family
In like circumstances pays $3.50 and while
one OF our Landlords has one single residence
great palace full on the same amount of
ground. So with regard to our food. While
an American has three meals = day, for
the nres three times kindled, and the work
three times done, q European family rarely
s ses, me Table but once day, which is gene.
biscuit or something else that does not
%Tsh work o.. The
not cost more than ten cents per Individual,
whether taken in the family or at
the restaurant, and that though ali the
materials used are dearer than in this couu-
Try. And what Is in still greater contrast
with our expensive customs, European
family does rot waste anything. No more is
put on the table than liz eaten, and no more is
cooked or bought than is wanted. Instead of
buying whole roasts and steaks for small
families. the people buy slices of meat and
npyworth's of vegetables, the size OF the
dish not being thought to add to its respecta-
biilty. If anything remains over and after
meal 1t is served up In another form aud
not given TO the dogs or garbage cart. The
French and Germans have more varieties of
hash thar we have of staple dishes, using up
i'm them not only remnants of meat, but also
OF bread, vegetables. broth, and everything
else. And these hashes, instead of being in
any disIepufe, as they are here, are got up
with such taste that they compare favorably
m hGS W hoc off haa,
marked that two Germans can live on what
one American wastes, and live better than
the American. The Europeans, moreover,
use up many products that we do not use at
all, as the stems of cabbage, beets, and other
vegetables, and the refuse OF the butchers
shops, many of their most favOrite dishes
being made of such scrapings.
We have SO few ways OF preparing our food
that we cannot make any thing palata ole ex-
cept out of the best materials, while skill
fui French cook with an onion and penny
worth OF spices can tran sfOrm chaff, bran,
weeds, ana brine into edibles. Philip the
Second, being once incensed At his shoema-
ker because his new boots did not fit him,
had the boots stewed up in a savOry dish py
his French cook and made the shoemaker
eat them. In dressing, too. the people show
pensive tailOrs and mantuamakers, and get
ting an outfit that costs three times the price
OF the materials OF which it is composed, and
time the fashion changes, they study how
they may get their clothes cheap, and do as
much work upon themselves as they know
how 10 do. A French lady will cut up, re-
trim, and rearrange her old dress and bonnet
until hardly anything of the original ma
terial remains, always keeping in fashion,
and always keeping In taste, and yet COM
paratively without expense a French
belle dresses with half the material and with
one fourth the expense OF al American, and
looks equally as we'll dressed. So in regard
to public amusements and entertainments
People don't pay from 81 TO 50 for a seat at
the opera, and hire carriage, buy a
new pair OF gloves, and borrow a dress
coat for the occasion, running up bill of $40
Tor ole evenings entertainments; bat they
go at an expense often OF but 81 all told, and
make as good an appearance and enjoy
themselves as much as we. So when they
carouse at saloon, they do not charter the
dining room and get up pggery at cost
| often OF hundreds OF dollars, but are as
economical in acting the fool as in anything
| else. They sit at a corner table, order from
the common bill OF fare, and pay each for
part what he consumes. When a man in-
/ vites friend to dine with him he common
| ly takes him 10 good restaurant and pays
simply the usual fare. When q lady gives
tea party she spreads commonly only
bread, butter, and tea before her guests, at q
| cost OF one 1.-THE OF our lavish supply of
delicacies and sweetmeats. AT funerals,
| with all their hired mOurners, the expenses
are very small compared with ours, IL being
| the custom to take your friends 10 the grave
! In hired hacks. In short, in nearly all re-
| spects, the Europeans. although they live
as well Is We in the substantiais Of
happiness, do it at much less expense,
owing to an arrangement of their Gus
| toms looking TO cheapness. II they
| have more servants and horses and
| wines and pictures, and II they go more ire
| quently to places OF amusement, and are
| more given to pleasure, 1t Is because these
| things do not cost SO much, SO that they do
| 1t not IN extravaganza but in economy. The
| reason why We do not have SO many Injuries
| and take SO much enjoyment in this country
| Is principally because we make the few we
have very dear, 50 that we cannot indulge
| very often and cannot all indulge. II operas
| were made cheap We might have them good
| themselves of such things because they want
| to make display when they do indulge. We
| have In this country put many Of the most
| Of the reach of the people, 80 that by our ex .
| travagant customs We not only spend more
| money for the same amount OF enjoyment,
but deprive ourselves Of other enjoy ments
| because we cannot afford 1t In the style in
| which, according to our ideas OF propriety
| we ought to take It.