The Brookhaven leader., 1884-03-27
Cost OF Living Abroad.

"There is no city in which YOU can get
more for six pence or less for guinea
than in London" This was what
Richard Rush, the American diplomat
ic representative to England, said away
ba k in the twrnties. These words are
as true to-day as they were when the
shrewd, obServant American gaze ut
terance to them. Bread to-day is
cheaper in London than in New York,
Paris, Vienna, Berlin, or Brussels. You
can get a suit of clothes made to meas
ure from real Scotch tweed for Sl5,
fashionably cut and well finished. Hun
dreds of tailors will be glad to take
YOUR measure and furnish a well-fitting
suit of a common but still fair material
for $40. can buy ready-made shoes for
$3.50, every bit as good as | can pur-
chase in New York for S5, while IT
that sum l can get as good pair OF
hand-scwn understanding" as wish
to wear. A good silk hat may be
bought for So, and Derby Of the latest
fashion for triIle over -. Shirts and
underwear are less than two-thirds the
price asked for them in New York, and
the gloves | wear cost me seventy-five
cents pair, and l have never yet
found them to split or tear. Ladies
attire is Iroportionatelv cheap. Houses
and rooms may he had within two and
one-half miles of the heart of the city,
with gardens four times as large as the
area the res dtnce stands on, for a
rental of from $50 to 5000 per an
mum, return fare by rail to the city
costing from six to eight cents daily
Vegetables are about half the price
they are in the S ates. Butter is five
cents pound CHEAPER, and meat only
is dear commodity. Not nearly so
much dearcr, though, as is generally
suppc sed. Yesterday l bought a leg OF
excellent mutton for twenty cents per
pound and for prime joints of teef the
butchers are now asking twcnty-four
cents per pound. Then, again, fish is
ridiculously cheap. read in an Exeter
paper that herrings were sold in that
town one day last week at the rate of
twenty-four for three cents, and that
sprats were retail ed at two cents per
quart.
But Mr. Rush was as right about the
purchasing power of the guinea as he
was in his estimate of the liberal equiv
alent obta nable for the nimble six
pence. In the West End of London the
most extortionate prizes are asked by
the traicsmnn. Fifteen dollars for a
pair OF trousers and SS5 for cot and
vest are by no means exceptional prices,
and there are plenty of knights of the
shears who would charge $50 for suit
of evening dress that one could readily
match at city tailor's for So. | know
several "snips" that are glad to array
customers in all the glory of ''clawhan.-
mer' coat, low-cut vest and pant en-
suite for S15. London boarding-houses
are an abomination and a snare. One
can get infinitely better food and ac-
comm dation in Philadelphia, Balti-
more or Boston for s. per week than
can be procured in London for dou lie
the oney. Railway travelling, too, is
much more expensive in England than
in An erica. Even the third class is,
think, quite as expensive as the uniform
are charged in the States, and to make
a Journey of a few hundred miles in a
fir,t-c!ass carriage VII C st at least fifty
per cent more than a similar journey in
the States. 'eip Hd Pr,SS.