Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-05-29
MANHATTANISMS.
HOUSEKEEPING STILL A GREAT TASK IN
GOTHAM
Refined Homes in Hotels-Dcg Worship as
Fashionable Religion-A Scnol-
arly kdventurer-Etc.

NEW YORK, May IL, 1880.
While it is not nearly so hard as it was
few years ago, to find decent place tc
live here, the task is far from easy. New
Workers dependent on salaries are not
obliged to hire large houses at twice the
amount of their earnings, and trust to
getting dodgers in order to meet their rent,
as was long their custom and necessity.
The building of many small residences
| above Seventieth and EIghtieth streets,
now accessible by the elevated railways,
and the erection of goodly number of
apartment houses, has been of marked
benefit to this densely populated island.
People of moderate means can now secure
a roof to shelter them without depending
on extraneous sources to satisfy their
landlord, which is surely great gain
But they must not be in the least fas-
tidious they must not demand convenience
or genuine comfort. If they do they will
be as bad off as ever There are places
for small families in the upper wards but
they are not such as would be accounted
desirable. This continues to be city for
the accommodation of the rich and for the
encouragement of people of ordinary in
comes, and is likely to continue so for
many years.
WHERE CAN WE LIVE?
If man, with three or four mature per-
sons dependent upon him, wants to reside
in a respectable quarter-respecta
and fashion have here the same meaning,
architecturaliy-he will be obliged to pay
for one apartment fully 81 900, and he
cannot find whole house for less than
81, 600 year. This is out of all proportion
certainly, because the bulk of educated
Americans, those who are clerks, statesmen,
accountants and the like, do not, and can
not earn on an average more than 81, 500
annually. Of course there are bookkeep.
ers, statesmen, journalists, commercial trav-
elers and others who can command 81, 800,
So, 000andupwards, but they are exceptions.
How this class continue to make both ends
meet passes conjecture. They have sensi-
blity, culture, taste, and for man of this
order to live in New York with family
on fifteen hundred year must be more
than hard-it must be painful | wonder
how they do it. 1t is generally estimated
that man with wife and two or three
children-quite as many as most Manhat-
tanese can afford to have-needs five thou
sand dollars year to enable him to get on
respectfully In this city. No wonder that
young men are afraid to marry-their fear
is born of prudence-and that the doc
trines of Nautilus are practically followed.
The New Yorker who depends on an ordi-
nary salary, and chooses wedlock, is in
trepid to the verge of rashness.
FAMILY HOTELS.
But the metropolis steadily grows pleas.
anter for those blessed with abundant
means, or those even in easy circumstances.
They can live as they like, since there are
many ways to select from. A very agree
able method of living is in family hotel,
which has grown quite common within two
or three years. The family hotel has all
the advantages of the large and best
houses, without the noise and publicity.
1t receives no transient guests, conse.
quently there is none of the confusion and
uproar incident to continual arrivals and
departures. The rooms are in suites, some
times furnished, sometimes unfinished,
and must generally be engaged for year.
"A restaurant is connected with the
house, and the patrons take their meals
in large hall or ordinary, at
small tables, always reserved, paying a
fixed price, usually Sl4 a week, for each
person. The house is elegant in its APP
pointments the service is excellent !;
everything moves easily and smoothly. 1t
has many of the attractions of refined
home, without its responsibilities, and for
maidens, bachelors and childless couples it
is much sought, although small families
admirably managed, and are so delightfully."-
placid and orderly that it is not strange
that they are rapidly growing in favor.
They are in this respect in such marked
contrast to the Metropolitan, Fifth Ave-
nue., Hoffman or Windsor, through which
the whole town appears to be surging from
morning to midnight, that for lovers of
quiet there can be no comparison between
the two. Most of these houses are in the
best quarters of the town. Fifth avenue
is dotted with them, and they are gener-
ally so full, except in summer, that it is
hard to secure rooms unless you have made
arrangements long beforehand. Very often
people have their names down year
or more in advance. The family hotel is
assuredly a marked advance On the old
plan of living in one of our colossal Amer
lean caravansarles.
CUR-ADoRERs.
The bench show, just opened at the i'll
fated Madison Square Garden. is not only
drawing very well, but is drawing people
of fashion, many of them women. 1t has
tend to admire, dogs of fine or fancy
breeds, and the present exhibition, under
the auspices of the Westminster Kennel
Club, is the best by far that has been held
here. Almost any large-natured man is
fond of good dog but the worship that
many of our women pay to miserable little
beasts is more than irrational, it is unnatu-
raj and repulsive. To see women, young,
middle-aged and old, on the promenade
and in carriages, carrying, cuddling and
caressing tiny terriers, poodles, pugs and
st. Charleses, as we see them every hour
of the day, is revolving. Why will women
make such fools of themselves Tor has ma
ture anticipated the making), and why will
they exhibit their folly in public? Many,
nay, most of these canine worshipers are,
doubtless, ancient maidens or childless
wives, whe give to their pets what should
belong to their offspring 1t is the ma
ternal instinct and feeling perverted, and
while it is abhorred as spectacle, it is
capable of exciting commiseration for those
who have been deprived of their parental
rights. Some of the cur-adorers are, how.
ever,
WOMEN OF FAMILY,
Who have entered into their alteration be-
cause they have seen others do it, because
it is, they think, the fashion. In them it
is contemplate and incapable of evoking
charity even from the most charitable. A
few years since hardly reputable woman
could be seen here fondling dog, but
now it is disgustingly common even among
woman who claim to be of the most re.
fined society. Any day you may see
scores of such women in the Avenue or the
Park carrying poodles on their bosoms, &C.
tually kissing them, allowing them to lick
their faces, even their lips Bah ! What
well-regulated gorge does not rise at it !
How delightful it must be to the men who
come after the dogs! What manly man
would be willing to be the rival, and less
| favored rival, of cur? This odious thing