The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-12-02

The wages IN Toxic, which is to Japan
as New York is to the United States
are about as follows in American
money:
Carpenters get from 80 to 45 cents a
day. Cart men, who manage and help
the pullers and pushers of carts loaded
with heavy merchandise along the
streets of the city, get from &c to Sc
cents day, and the men under them,
who act as dray horses of Japan and
work Just as hard as our horses, get
from to cents a day. Wood carvers
are very fine workmen here. They re-
ceive rom 30 to SO cents day. Paper
hangers get from % to % cents, and
stone cutters receive from 45 to So cents.
Blacksmiths are paid from % to 80 cents
a day; mat-layers, corresponding to
our carpet layers, get SO cents day,
and painters do well if they receive
from 10 to 26 cents day. The wages
of gardeners range from 19 to 80 cents,
and those of ordinary day laborers
from 15 to % cents. No European or
American country can compete with
such wages, and the laborer here who
works at them, while he does not have
the comforts of the laborer of thu
United States, is happy and really bet
ter of than some of the laborers of
Europe. There is no herding together
of many families in one room on &C :
count of poverty, ana nearly every
household rents its own cottage or
house. This house often consists of
but one room. In such cases, the rent
is about 40 cents in American money
month, and Toxic guide book, which
lies before me, states that the average
monthly expenses for food is about
81 IS for each person, and that the
necessary outlay for the clothing is
about So. 20 year. - r.
This book gives an estimate as to the
cost OF laboring man of Japan start
ing housekeeping, and it puts the total
at $54 in Japanese money, which
would equal less than 81 in American.
The list of necessities required is so in
teresting and gives such good idea of
japanese housekeeping that l copy it
verbatum:
Four and one half mats. (the carpet)
80 cents; a long hibachi, (steve, 40
cents; heart, for boiling rice, so; iron
pot for rice boiling, 43 cents; iron pan,
20 cents; iron pot for boiling water, %
C hts; tripod, 5 cents; a long iron
tong, 2 cents; a brass tong, cent; a
fire shovel, 2 cents; charcoal basket,
4 cents; tea pot, 3 cents; a water bar
rel, 10 cents; a rice cleaning basin, s
cents; small barrel, 3 cents; WASH
basin. Is cents; cutting board, Z cents;
a table knife. cents; dipper, 2 cents:
a basket, 3 cents; large basket,
cents; suDdrle5, 10 cents; rice box,
cents; a skeWer, 3 cents; a wooden
spoon, l cent; tea caps. 4 cents; wooden
bowls, (for plates) 3 cents; chop sticks,
(the knives and forks) 2 cents; broom.
cents; lamp, 10 cents bottles, 3 cents
quilts, 70 Genus; two pillows, 2 cents;
aud grand total S. IA.
The estimate is so complete that it is, l |
doubt not, the entire OUTFIT of manv
3 Japanese home of the poorer classes
It sounds very meagre, but in a land |
where the bread is rice and the drink is |
tea, where no sheets and carpets are |
used, and where the lounge and the |
rocking chair has yet to be introduced, |
ts5ens to suffice. The pt o est classes
pillow their heads upon blocks of wood |
covered with wad of paper. They use
.helr own heels for chairs, and their
1oors and comforter form their beds. |
Inc japanese are content with little,
and it is from this attribute of their
nature that Americans need not expect
10 compete with them in business in
their OWE country. They do business
on margin that would ruin an Amer
can tradesman. and if they MAKE 5
;,nts on the sale of watch cr1O cents
n selling clock they are satisfied.