The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1885-11-12
MAKING ENDS MEET.
What 1t Costs Young Men to Live in the
Busy Metropolis.

Busy Metropolis.
"a great horde of young men make
their way to this city annually" said a
prominent Wall street financier to a
Herald reporter, 'deserting the farm,
the country store and light occupations
In small towns, ambitious to wrestle
for the spoils of commerce and the
golden fruits of trade, without the
slightest knowledge of how to live on
small pay. The first lesson l had to
learn was how to spend-how to make
q small salary put food in my mouth,
clothes on my back and a roof over me.
Strange as it may seem, some never
learn the lesson, and go back disgraced
through debt, broken through disap-
polntment and useless by reason of
their city experience.
''But how can il be expected that a
verdant youth will know how to spend,
how to manager" asked the reporter.
| 'lt is not to be expected. A boy
coming to this city with few dollars
must learn how to get what he wants
at the least possible cost. He must be
| shown. This knowledge will be more
beneficial than aplace, He must know
that penny saved is a penny made.
See ali orr rich men. Many of them
slept under the counters in the store,
and had only bread and milk for break
fast. See A. L. Stewart, Edwin Nor
gan, John Jacob Astor, Pierre Loril- |
lard, Isaac L. Sherman, Jay Gould, |
Commodore Vanderbilt Why, those |
men matched their stomachs and backs |!
against the pennies in their pockets, |
and the pennies won, for they saved
them.
with the very poor it is case of |
deprivation. Poverty is poverty A !
young man should, upon getting the /
iron foot of poverty off his neck, and
when he is in receipt of fair salary,
say $500 to 81, POO year, look about
to see how he can make associations
that will prove ultimately beneficial to
him. He must then spend more liher=
ally, but still in accordance with his
means, keeping cautiously reserve or
accident fund for the evil day which is
sure to come upon him unexpectedly.
Tins Is where young men go astray,
AL The start the gain is too slow; later
1t Is too fast. In Il word, it is how to
spend, for how to spend means how to
live. L believe in so much for necessi-
ties, SO much for pleasures, so much as
reserve fund against accident 1t
hO "utlueE IL Is In6
young clerk on $500 year or the op-
ulent bondholder on $4,000 a year"
The banker spoke with emphasis.
What he had said was the result of his
own experiences and observations.
The Herald reporter. to test the theo-
ry advanced, made a tour of the town,
and he found that on salary of $500
year young man with perseyer-
ance might not only live but lay up q
portion of his pay. OF boarding-houses
there is no end, the prices largely de-
pending upon the situations and the
class Of people living in them. A
young man sharing his room with
some friend may be able to get fair ac-
for 81 per week, and, if
the sole occupant, for s.. There are
many small rooms on the upper floors
OF boarding-houses in excellent loca-
tions which are rented to single men,
with board, for So and 80 per week.
While many young men, wishing to
know exactly what their expenses will {
come 10 at the end of tho week, adopt !
this system of living, there are others |
who prefer to have a room and ret {
their meals in restaurants. Rooms can {
be secured without meals for 81 and s. I
per week. S
The table GhOte system has grown to {
great dimensions in this city during t
he past ten years. There was a time 1
when dinners at fixed prices were only G
% be had ut the hotels, but now they t
ire 10 bc found on tho principal ave- i
lucs and side streets, with prices vary +
ng from H cents 10 S1.50. Some of +
hcse establishments give their regular f
customers dinners and breakfasts for f
80 per week. If it were not that the u
employed cooks, both g
economical and skillful, it would be in S
Iced a mystery how they could set
before their guests two meals day L
or less than 81, and particularly so L
Yhen both dinner and breakfast are t
and palatahle. 1t is estimat- Z
ID that no less than 5000 men daily Q
line in these places during the winter a
eason. Tho great city clubs have very t
adopted the system of pro- t
riding their members with dinners at 2
ixed prices. v
1t is not to be supposed that men in t
,asy circumstances will suffer them {
olives to live on the same careful plan
WHICH marked their financiering in the t
'arly days of small pay. And the t
light of the great buildings throughout y
he city which are known as bachelor
lpartment houses carries conviction to o
he senses that the days of their ten S
Ints' deprivation are over. Inquiry of n
he janitor in charge will show that T
Toung men pay for two rooms rentals S
Tarying from $500 to $4,000. Often S
hese rooms consist only of Il small sit
ing-room and bedroom, with bath p
DOM attached-the prices being grad g
I'd in accordance with the facilities, at o
endance, modern improvements and b
furnished. The apartment a
for by such a name the two rooms n
re known and leased-is most in de- h
nand when the rent asked for it is less p
han $500 u year. ii
A young man living in a small apart d
nent does not infrequenlly occupy it in {
with friend. This material IL
y diminiShes the cost, SO that after all n
he rooms only equal the expense of a O
mall chamber at the top of Il four-sto- t,
y boarding-house, where no kindly ell n
vator runs to relieve the sky lodger of Il
he arduOus duty of climbing long d
lights of stairs. Such young men gem "
rally join a club. and the annual dues il
re frequently less than the money I.
aved, proyidedssthey had ordered the a
ame article of food in Il restaurant of fl
my pretensions. Il
The associations made at club Il
oung men find not only agreeable, but Il
seful in general way when they Il
aunch out their own small ventures on g
he swelling tides of commerce. But Il
till the outlay of money is oftcntimes is
more extensive than the slender purse IL
an well stand without fear of being p
Wholly depleted. Frequently the sum a
otal of expenses runs much in this 81
ashton: Apartments, S4OO; breakfast A
nd dinner. $500; club dues, $50; cloth 81
ng. $500, and sundry small expenses W
or necessaries and amusement swell Is
he figures to the round sum of Sl.50 81
To the young men from the country II
nd to the city lad alike the conviction IL
oon comes that half the battle of ex- o
'tence depends upon the ability of the b.
oung economist to control his ex-