The state chronicle., 1884-04-12
NEW YORK LIFE.
He Earns Enough to Live Comforta-
bly. but Manages to Save Nothing
and Dies Poor.

He Earns Enough to Live Comforta-
bly,, but Manages to Save Nothing
and Dies Poor.
,nectal Correspondence of the Chronicle.
NEW YORK. April 9.-Between the
ssfastr life and the tramp life in New
York. about each of which have written,
there is. of course, the everyday life Of
everyday well-to-do people. This in some
respects is much more satisfactory OF
course than the life of a tramp-at least
we are in the habit of thinking that it is.
But often doubt it.
man can make his life in New York
almost anything he chooses to make it.
On small income he can live as well as
he can live anywhere in the world. But
it is the hardest place in the world to 90
more than merely to live.
The life of the modest and moral man
of an average income (without capltaD Is
something like this: He must pay, say
$4OO to 5000 year for rent. And his
household expenses in other ways will cost
at once take about 81 500, and about ST.,
5OOis about what thousands and thousands
of men get for their services ll-trained
business men who have not had any espe-
cially excellent luck or done anything ex-
traordinary.
With this, he can occasionally 60 with
his family to the theatre, and make little
excursions in the summer but he cannot
indulge in many such luxuries. He lives
very well-that sums it all up. But he
seldom manages to save anything.
His life is, of course, on strictly cash
basis. Every day in the year he must go
forth with money in his pocket. He can
not even get down town or across the ferry
or into town without paying out so much
cash for street-car fare, car-fare or ferry
fare. Every turn of the street costs cash
every time very small amount, of
course, but the aggregate is large. And
it is not simply the fact that he has to live
on cash basis-which, of course, is an
advantage everything costs money.
Everywhere else in the world-except, OF
course, in other very large cities-there
are number of things that people can
procure without an outlay of money; more,
in fact, than you would imagine if you
have never thought of it. But it is not
so here.
It has BEEN estimated that of the pros
porous men who earn on an average Of
81, 500 year, not five per cent. save any
money, but the most of them die or leave
New York to begin life for themselves
really in debt. It is system of living
square up TO Lne nOGCn. IL is a lie Iull o.
conveniences and full of pleasures an6
opportunities but something for rainy
day is out Of the. question, except tht
rainy day happen to bring you an acci
dent, and you have a policy in an acciden
insurance company.
The unsatisfactory part of this life is
that these people who really constitute tn
better and higher working class Of tn
metropolis cannot afford to lose a week.
income at any hazard. They live hand
to-mouth life as surely as the Negroes il
the South, only it is on a higher and NOR
respectable scale. The nervous strain ant
unconscious feeling of fear that comes t.
such men-the trouble that big doctor
bill brings, or anything of that nature
prevents such life from being as salts
factory in many ways as the life Of hum
bier and even less successful men else
where. They don't live as long as you
newspapers say you folks in North Caro-
lima live. But while they do live they ge
along good deal more rapidly.
After all, it is very much a matter O
taste, and a matter of accident The
have to live so. And for the advantage
that you country folks enjoy you have
suffer good many disadvantages, and t
do without great many pleasures whic
these people in New York have.