The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1886-10-07
KEEPING UP APPEARANCES
The Devices of Young Men on Small SaI<
aries to Live and Dress.

aries to Live and Dress.
To work-a-day folks, who toll aud
sweat year in and year out and barely
make both ends meet, even on salaries
above the average, it is always some+
thing of mystery how so many young
men, on salaries of Sl2 week. or FROM
that to SlS at the outside, manage at ALI
times to keep dressed in the hight Of
fashion and find leisure to air them
selves and their clothes in conspicuous
ly public places. There is a good-sized
world of these butterfly young men in
New York. 1t takes in over half the
young men in the city. They are bill
clerks, or messengers, or underbook+
keepers in the big mercantile houses, or
''ladies' men" in the dry-goods houses
or young men who do anything that
passes for work without involving act4
ual manual labor. They are ALWAYS
rugged out in the latest cut of clothes
They never seem IN a hurry. They
loiter through the avenues and the
parks, which are their favorite resorts
Saturday afternoons and Sundays, and
hover about the theater doors at night,
like gnats around the electric lights
To all appearances they are young mem
of elegant leisure and unlimited rex
sources. How do they manage it on S1z
a week?
81 will show you; come upstairs q
moment" said a renter of rooms on
Eighth avenue, near Forty-eighth street..
the other day. She is a matronly'per-
son, and has dozen or more young
men for roomers in her flats. She led
the way to the fourth story. At the head
of the stairs she opened the door to a
L. -
clean. Its furniture consisted of a bed,
plain washstand, and two chairs. Al
row of hooks on the wall opposite ths
bed did service instead of a. clothesl
press, and the washstand drawer sup
piled the absence of a bureau. In tho
corner of the room behind the door was
plain pine box, like an ordinary soap
box. On it stood a small oil-stove
1.-The young man who rents this now,"
said the old landlady, ''is a clerk in ona
of the most fashionable retail dry-goods
houses on Sixth avenue. In PERSONAL
appearance you couldn't tell him from
a millionaire, but he gets only $l1.50 q
week. He pays me 50 week for this
room. Out of the other $50 he boards
himself, pays for his washing. buys his
clothes-and he always wears tha
latest styles-in fact, his entire living
expenses come out of the $3.50. WHAT
is his secret? 1t is contained in this
pine box"
She removed the oil-stove and lifted
the box lid. Inside were a small fry
ing-pan, miniature coffee-pot, cup and
saucer, two spoons, knife and fork,
and several paper packages.
Here, you see," continued the land
| lady, sis a little housekeeping outfit
| With it and the oil-stove the young dry-i
goods clerk practically boards himself
that is, he gets his own breakfast and
supper every day, and no one is wiser
| Those packages in the box contain what
he eats. In the morning he makes a
cup of coffee for himself, which is an
easy matter with the oil-stOve. He also
cooks a little rice, an egg, piece of
bacon, or sometimes 4 small piece Of
steak. Either makes palatable and
sustaining meal. That is before he goes
to work. In the evening when he re-
turns from the store he cooks his supper
in the same way. He does his little
marketing himself too, and he has be-
come so good at it that he can do fully
as well as can at the stores. He will
buy piece of bacon, enough for three
meals, for six cents; rice for six meals,
| ~ cents; can OF condensed milk,
which will last not less than ten days,
for IL cents; eggs at cents each;
half-pound of cheese, which will last q
week, 123 cents; coffee enough for ten
days, half pound, for 124 cents; sugar
for week, 10 cents; potatoes, nine or
ten big ones, that will suffice for not
less than four meals, for nickel IL
you will figure the cost of one meal out
of this list you will find that, with va
riety limited only by the articles ON
hand, the expense will not exceed 10
cents-that is, 20 cents day for the.
two meals, to which add 10 cents that.
he spends downtown for lunch, and
| you have 80 cents a day, or s. a
week, as the cost of his board. His
washing costs not over 25 cents a week.
as he is neat and careful, so that his
actual living expenses, including the S3
room-rent. are S5.35 week, or. allow
ing the odd 10 cents for oil to burn in
the little stove Qwo cents worth will
last nine hours in III, mis- total expendi-
ture is $3.50 week, which leaves So
from his salary to be spent on Clothes.
| or whatever he chooses. That, sir, IS
the way hundreds. l might even say
thousands and thousands. of young men
in New York live and manage to keep
up appearances. ."-Nel0 York Mail and
Express.