Sacramento daily record-union., 1882-05-08
MISTRESS MAYFLOWER.

MISTRESS MAYFLOWER.
HER BOSTON LETTER - SPRING - TIE
scH0oLs-LIvING COST.
American Life and Its Lack-How Little
Can We Live Upon7- Reli-
gion-some Tests
Boston, April "a, 1882.
"For spring comes slowly up this way. !"
Never SO slowly we think impatiently as,
equipped in January's wool and furs, we
brave squally skies and bitter east wind
that would do credit to early March, for
the sake of venturous country excursion,
and come back to city sidewalks and fur.
mace heat bringing the only floral offerings
that unaided nature seems likely TO have
ready for the Queen o the May-alder
tassels, pussy willows, maple blooms and
a few humble sheep noses. A few new
bonnets have been seen since Easter, but
for the rest we cover in our thickest
mufflings, and only shudder when told that
since Pasque in New York the men have
doffed their overcoats (top-coats, to be
truly abreast of fashionable parlance), and
saunter about in snug cutaways, with un.
happy roses in their button. holes, and the
women have emerged from sealskins and
sables and ulsters, to appear in polonaises
and marquise jackets, almost too close.
fitting for even that thin bit of armor, the
under.vest of chamois leather. Beside
weather only suited to
THE PENITENTIAL SEASON
We reckoned over, the butchers are almost
forcing us to prolong our Lenten rigor in
the use of and abstention from meat.
Twenty eight and 80 cents per pound for a
roasting piece, 32 to S5 cents ditto for sir
loin steak, and the cheaper cuts at pro.
portionately raised rates. But what, in
the way of food or shelter or firing, is not
dear in this springIof 1882? In the whole
cost of living, indeed, save perhaps some
articles of clothipg. Lately, to test the
difference in results, if difference existed,
of the training of pupils according to the
public school method in this city and to
that in use at Quincy, scholars OF various
grades in each system were required to
write, in twenty minutes, some sort Of
answer to the question, What is my
school doing for me ?" One boy announced
in his summary that his school had taught
him this was not the best country in the
world. Lexington, Bunker Hill, and the
Spirit of '76. A boy descended likely
enough from one OF those very boys who
made their declaration Of independence in
that famous appeal to the British General
concerning his soldiers interference with
the haunts and sports of Yankee school
boys But, patriotism aside, is this
THRTFISEsT COUNTRY
To live in on the globe? What did the
Consular reports to Government of the
price of living in various countries make
out America to be: The place where prices
ruled higher than anywhere save in the two
cities Of Vienna and Berlin. In Paris
which is dear compared with the Paris Of
twenty years ago-one may get modest,
pretty little suit of rooms for what one
good one costs here, and workingwoman
who doesn't mind climbing may lodge her.
self well for one dollar the month. In
London it is easy enough to follow that
economical rule which prescribes that rent
should consume not more than ons. six tn
OF the yearly income. good house in
Kensington or Bayswater, tha. there com.
mands S400 or $500 year, would, either
in Boston or Philadelphia, bring $500 to
81 900, and in New York 81, 200. In
pretty tuburban districts of London one
may get tasteful house and goodlv slice
OF garden plot for from 5000 to 1850 that
would easily let in any suburb of Boston
for quite double the money, and for much
more than that 10 the choicer ones. Inmy
own london days knew several literary
or artistic workers who lived III lodgings
parlor, sleeping Attendance, food,
washing--at cost of $40 the week. some
could include a fire also in that sum, but
that was rather a triumph of management.
For myself, if / may be pardoned bit of
personality, sigh as think / shall never
again be placed SO altogether to my mind
as regards work, for, like Hawthorne,
believed there never could be fiuer work.
shop than is mighty London. had lodp.
ings in Kensington, close to the parks.
within reach of everything. / had my
own maid, there was always
DINNER ENOUGH
/ For a sudden guest, and l could give 5
o'clock tea to several simultaneous people,
yet my weekly expenses averaged about
SIG, and never, on any wildly prodigal oc-
casion, mounted to $40. Here the very
skeleton of such an existence would cost
thrice as much, and where would be the
art, music, books, history, that, almost
costless, there clothed with symmetry the
bare details Of working life Why do
Americans linger abroad Not because
they love home and home people less, but
that life in the Old World is so much
easier-padded to any one who has what
may be called an income at all, and that it
gives to people of educated tastes and slen-
der means what even CIesus here may
hardly compass. We are not greatly to
| blame for what is the greatest lack in
American life, but that mere warmth, shell.
ter and bread and butter should cost here
what they do cannot be necessary It is
hard to hear in this rich young world that
cruel phrase, the struggle for life. Do
we struggle for what we do not really
need The question suggests itself apro-
pos Of Lenten experiment by q Catholic
physician in London. Another London
physician had declared, in one of the daily
| journals. that milk, butter, cheese and eggs
are the equivalents Of fssh, and that with.
out either flesh, fish, or these substitutes,
men cannot properly be fed. The Catholic
believed that mankind may be perfectly
nourished On purely vegetable diet; that
the quantity of food sufficient for the best
health is much less than people believe. the
necessary cost of bodily sustenance very
small, and so, on Ash Wednesday, he be.
| gan to test his theories on his own body.
He began upon
! ONE MEAL DAY
( OF brown bread and stewed raisins, OF the
dry weight of eight ounces. For fort.
night he continued upon one meal daily,
seven to nine ounces, "water-free. of purely
vegetable food, keeping in good health and
spirits, writing, lecturing seeing patients,
attending difficult cases for twelve or fifteen
| hours in each twenty -four. Then, to vary
! the experiment, he divided the cost and
quantity Of food into two meals, taken at
| 10 A. NJ. and p. NJ. His conclusions are
that one may be perfectly sustained upon a
rigidly vegetable diet; /; that fair average
diet is, in quantity, about twelve dry
ounces per day, and that the greater mum.
Der of invalids and dyspeptics would sooner
get well on eight ounces. As to cost, he
could not, upon his eight or nine ounces OF
daily food, spend more than five farthings-
one cent and half.
Now, with all its varieties. the human