Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-05-20

| w m. *. 1rayers, george NJ. 1ulitnan,
Horace Porter, Junius Morgan and Others
His home is here, and he frequently enter
tains his friends at his rooms In Clinton
place. Several years since, James X.
Keene gave him $50, 600 as an evidence OF
his appreciation of Wards kindness in
taking care of him through long illness.
| Ward recently insisted on returning the
amount, having acquired sufficient means
of his own. The ex lobbyist is entirely
good. hearted and generous to fault. He
owns so many graces of mind and manner
that he creates friends everywhere. he IS
on intimate terms with VIM. NJ. Evarts,
Henry Ward Beecher, Lester Wallack,
James Gordon Bennett, Edwin Booth,
Samuel J. Tilden, Oliver Wendell Holmes,
John Kelly, August Belmont, S. l.. NJ.
Barbour, Rev. DR.. Henry c. Potter, Pierre
Lorillard. John G. Whittier, Royal Phelps,
DIR. Fordyce Barker, George Bancroft,
VIM. II. Vanderbilt and
MOST PROMINENT MEN,
Whatever their calling, throughout the land
He is on familiar footing, too, with Glad
stone, Gambetta, Bismarck, Countde Cham
bord, Dom Pedro (of BRAZIL, Robert
Browning, the Prince of Wales, Alfred
Tennyson, Victor Hugo, Thomas Huxley,
Cardinal Manning. the Archbishop OF York,
King Umberto, kossuth, Count Andrassy,
Herbert Spencer, the Duke of Argyle, and
any number OF the celebrities of the Old
World. Few men living in a private sta
ton have so many distinguished acquaint-
ances. He could write up "reminiscences of
almost any notable as readily as he has
written those of Longfellow. He is
a mine of information he is a critical
Greek and Latin scholar, a modern
linguist, brilliant talker, delightful COM
panion, and has commanding genius for
dinners. Notwithstanding the faint of ad.
venturer that clings to him, he seems to be
thoroughly liked by everybody, who holds
| that, if he be not overweighted with
principle, he is certainly very good fell
low. Sam Ward must be close upon 20
now he is stout short-necked, ruddy,
bold, wholly amiable, and ever beaming
with the memory of numberless good
stories and delicious dinners.
THE REVERSE SIDE oP THE PICTURE.
Another advance in prices has been
made here within few weeks, and as
they were very high before, the last up
ward turn must be serious in its conse.
quences. The advance is in necessities SIS
provisions are materially dearer; so are
rents, articles OF wearing apparel, and
nearly everything else. No city in the
world of any age or of settled conditions
begins to be SO expensive as this Is. 1t is
not strange that the outside public marvels
how New Workers live they marvel at it
themselves. With fully sesen. eighths of
our entire population life is a constant and
bitter struggle The circumstances of
more than half a million of people the
laboring and mechanic tenement. house
class - may we'll be considered despe-
rate, since they have no prospect of
relief from their unwholesome and de-
moralizing environment. Then there are
some hundreds of thousands of native
Americans, intelligent, educated, indus
trious, more or less fsstidious, who depend
on salaries and shop-keeping, and who at
best merely exc out subsistence. On all
these, an increase of fifteen to twenty per
cent. in the cost of living is a great hard
ship, especially when they have no corre-
spending power to earn. Nobody imagines
how much sell. denial they are forced to
practice, but they must strain to provide
for themselves decently, and keep out of
debt. There is far more privation among
them than would be believed for they are
toe proud to complain; they carefully con-
ceal their needs and their sufferings. They
keep up appearances when the reality is
sad enough. They may not be fairly driven
to the wall, though they are continually
tending thereto. They live a half-ife,
leaning on hopes that are never realized.
The gloomy inside OF great city is much
of the time presented to them. 1t is esti-
mated that
A SMALL FAMILY,
A man and wife and two children, cannot
get on here with any degree of comfort for
less than S., 900 yesr. If this be correct
and l am confident it is, the bulk of New
Workers must have a hard experience.
How do they manage? To what shifts do
they revert? Who supplies necessary de-
hciencies ? No answer has ever been given
to such questions, nor is any likely to be
given. Despite the activity OF business
and the general prosperity, thousands of
persons are at present seeking employment
in vain. As a rule, they have no special
trade, no particular training in any kind OF
work. Many of them are foreigners, freshly
arrived more are persons from the coun.
try, drawn thither by the report of the
commercial briskness prevalent in town.
The growing needs of the multitude may
be judged by the fact that the number of
women employed in the city is steadily
TLaxy Hl1 oil Of
situations. Formerly they were in
the main teachers, seamstresses, milliners,
dress-makers, lecturers, domestics ; to-day
they are saleswomen, florists, accountants,
telegraph operators, bar maids, physicians,
solicitors, journalists, cashiers, correspond
ents, managers, copyists, authors, clerks
and small manufacturers of divers kinds.
They are constantly entering into new in
dustries, and supporting not parents only,
but brothers and husbands, who are in
valids, physically or mentally, or indolent
or incompetent, and base enough to be pet
ticoat pensioners rather than honorable
suicides. But has New York ever been
making more money or spending more law
ishly than it is now? Probably not. But
the New York that makes deal of money
and spends lavishly is only few
thousands while they who are poor and
struggling and twisting and turning and
pinching to keep at a dull, dreary level,
must be counted by the hundreds of
thousands.
VARIETIES.
The erection of new and elegant family
hotel, something like the Vendome in Bos-
ton, but to exceed it in cost and elaborate
appointment, is contemplated on the vacant
lots at the southeast corner of Fifth avenue
and Fifty seventh street. Several capital
I lists are interested in the enterprise.
When William III. Vanderbilt was born,
some sixty years ago, his father. Cornelius
| Vanderbilt was not worth 1t is said 500