, 1889-02-22

In this bill, there is neither mantle, linen,
boots shoes, gloves, lace, nor the thousand
little requisites OF a woman's toilet, and 1t
Is but one out OF the three or four bills for
the year. | am convinced that an American
woman, who pretends to the least elegance,
must spend, II she DO a good manager, from
5000 to 5000 a year. Add to this tho fnct
that she loads herself with diamonds and
precious stones. But these, of course, have
not to be renewed every three months
a great number OF Americans come to Eu-
rope to pass three months OF every year.
This is not an additional extravagance; 1t Is
an economy. They buy their dress for a year,
and tho money they save by this plan not
only pays their travelling expenses, but leaves
them a nice little surplus in cash.
a hotel bcdroom on tho fourth floor, for
which you would pay five francs n day, is Is
in the good hotels OF tho principal towns of
America A cab which costs you one franc
and a half in France, or one shilling and six
pence in England, costs you a dollar and n
half in New York. The proportion is always
kept
The dollar has not more value than tins In
the lesser towns Of tho United States. The
omnibus, for instance, which takes you to the
station from your hotel for sixpenco Tor half
II shilling In England, and for half a frnnc in
Franco, costs you half a dollar in America
Copper money exists in America, but II you
were to offer "a cont to a beggar he would
ding it at you In disgust. When the bare
footed urchins in the south beg their formula
Is. Spare us a nickel" or "Chuck US n
nickel. ~guv'nor," The nickel is worth ave
cents Tho only use OF the cent that I could
discover was to buy tho evening paper.
Tho only things cheap in tho States are
naive oysters, and English or French books
TINT have been translated ipto American.
IL expenses nre enormous In tho United
States / must hasten to add that it Is chiefly
the foreign visitor who suffers in purse. The
American can afford to pay high prices, be-
cause his receipts arc far larger than they
would be in Europe. Situations bringing in
three or four hundred dollars, as in France In
England, are unknown In America Bank
clerks and shop assistants command salaries
of a thousand to fifteen hundred dollars q
year. A railway car conductor gets $50 a
month.
In the grades above In the professions, the
fees, compared with those earned m Europe,
are also in the proportion of the dollar to the
shilling or franc. A newspaper article for
which would be paid In France from 100 to
go francs and no French paper, except The
Figaro, pays so much for ~articles) is paid for
in America FROM 800 to $3.50. A doctor is
paid from 81 to $40 a visit am, of course,
net speaking OF specialists and fashionable
doctors; their charges ARE fabulous | know
barristers who make over slOO, 600 a year.
Every one is well paid in the United States,
except the vice president
If | hive spoken of the high cost of living,
it is to state n fact and not to make a com
plant | went TO America as a lecturer, not
as a tourist Jonathan paid me well, and
when cabby asked me for n dollar and n half
TO take me to a lecture hall, | said, like N.
Joseph Prudhomme: at is expensive, but
can afford it" and | paid without grumbling.