Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-02-19
N GROCERIES,.
How tho Poorest People Manage to Live
In New York.

How the Poorest People Manage to Live
In New York.
Within the last six months 4 number
of Italians and Germans have started
penny groceries in the parts of the city
populated by the poor, and these places
all seem to be prosperous and thriving.
Ten cents is thought by these grocers
to be a big bill, and the investor of Il
quarter is inevitably regarded us a
millionaire. In conversation with a re-
porter, a leading retail grocer said:
"There is no doubt these penny
groceries are on the increase. They
are an evil, and the penny grocer is
really the poor mans enemy instead of
his friend. In the penny grocery the
poor man pays twice as much for his
provisions in the long run and doesn't
get as good quality as if he bought
them in moderate quantities from larger
stores. The penny groceries are
stocked with what the poor man is
likely TO buy. The quality of the pro-
visions is not good; the coffee and tea
are especially poor, and the vegetables
Invariably stale"
An Italian who keeps q penny gro
Gerry in South Fifth Avenue, near
Blocker Street. gives the following list
as an illustration of what can be done
in a penny grocery with a silver
quarter:
Cents.
Three ounces of coIee...................
Three ounces of ice............... ........ l
Small loaf Of stale bread ............... l
Six sticks kindling-wood.........."...... I
Three e.
-Four potatoes l
Three ounces of barley. .......... l
Three ounces or brown Sugar..........
-Four ounces of starch
Thin slice bar l
Enough raisins for rice pudding......,... !
Small tea cup OF black molasses..."......
Quarter of a yard of lamp w;ck............ l
Quarter pound Of oleomargarine.. ......... 4
Scuttlc OF coal (miXed). 4
Two l
..."3
A small family can live for a day on
these purchases. The coffee will be
sufficient for a big potful. and the tea
is enough for two drawings. The rice
and raisins make asmall pudding. The
stale bread will serve for q meal, and
there is enough sugar to sweeten the
tea and coffee. The onions, potatoes,
and barley, with the addition of a beef
bone or piece of meat and a penny
bunch of pothcrbs, will make a stew
or soup There is enough soap to wash
the dishes and scrub the children's
faces. enough oil and wick to last all
night, a scuttle of coal and wood to
kindle the fire in the morning. Then
there are lard, molasses, and the next
thing to butter, oleomargarine, and
the two good sized pickles for a relish.
The penny grocers buy small stale
loaves for a half cent each and retail
them at a cent. Medium-sized stale
loaves cost them one and a half cents
and sell at two cents, and large stale
loaves they retail at three cents. The
coal they sell is coal-yard sweepings
screened, and contains a good deal of
slate.-N. Y. Mail amd Express.
The popular notion that the in
habitants of Chinese cities are given to
unwholesome habits does not seem to
be well founded. DR.. Dudgeon, in a
recent work on the diet, dress and
dwellings of the Chinese, says that the
people have admirably adapted them
selves to their surroundings, and enjoy
a maximum of comfort. ''They have
a good many lessons yet to teach us in
respect of living and practical health"
After an experience of over twenty
years with them, he says that 'they are
subject to fewer diseases, their diseases
are more amenable to treatment, and
they possess q greater freedom from
acute and intiammatOry affections of
all kinds, if, indeed, these can be said
to exist at all, than obtains among
Western nations. ~. Y. Sen.