Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1892-12-23
LIVING ON LOW WAGE.
HOW TWO YOUNG FELLOWS MAN.
AGED TO EXIST IN NEW YORK.

Far in a Big City. but These Two
Economical Men Made Their Money Go
n Pretty Good Distance for u Time.
( A magazine writer, who claimed to
have investigated the subject, recently
stated that there are several hundreds
of young and old bachelors in this town
WHO spend all the way from $40, 600 to
$3.50 0O a year for their personal comfort
There is q certain delirious %eXcitation
ever in reading the details of how these
fortune favored chaps get rid of the
time and enrich the community. To an
ingenious youth who earns twenty dol
lar. a week, for instance, the account Of
how a $75 900 per annum bachelor wards
off ennui and retains his flesh reads like
a Saturnalia.
u know the effect of ali this on a $50 a
week man, because l myself belong tu
the SEQ a week class. Twenty dollars S
week is about 81 900 a year, and l have
had a lot Of fun out of life for the past
three years on that sum. know a lot
of other fellows who do the same thing,
for $50 a week is about the average. in
come of half the neat looking chaps
wearing chrysanthemums pinned to ker-
sey top coats that you run across in the
course of a day.
When | came to this town from II farm
in western New York, | thought the.
man who offered HE q permanent job as
salesman at Il salary Of $;12 a week was
widely eNtrayagant, for | had already
learned some scrimping lessons. 1t did
not take me long to find out my mistake,
and so ! devised a system of expendi-
lures, and though in five yeares my in
uome has increased, as | have told you, J.
have stuck to it ever since. Here it is:
discovered to my complete satisfac.
ton that a single man can't get any sort
of n~ourishment, comfort or repose in a
boarding house in New York city for
less than eight dollars a week. Even
the eight dollar variety of New York
board is not in all respects desirable,
and when some dismal experiences had
hammered this knowledge into me | set
about to find a better scheme. In the
same store with me was another young
fellow, who was contributing his colos-
sal intellect and energies for twelve dol
lars a week. and we entered into a con
spiracy to shake off forever the land
ladies who We're getting most Of our pay.
We decided to hire a room together
and to get our meals in pot luck fashion
hustle for our grub on the outside"
as my chum put it. Aftera pretty care
full search we hit upon a large. comfort
able ground floor rear room in the home
of an elderly widow in Harlem, whoa
we soon jollied into the belief that Wa
were The salt Of the earth, with the re-
suit that she couldn't take too good care
of us. We agreed to pay her five dollars
a week for that room, which took $3.50
of my wages. When we had stuck up
on the walls the cabinet photos % all
the girls we knew, and had distributed
the knickknacAs which these girls haG
given us. the room looked simply i'm
mense.
The eating problem vas then to be
overcome. After sundry experiences we
adjusted it on this basis: Breakfast OF
rolls and good coffee in a little shop a
block from where we lived. IS cents:
luncheon of a sandwich, glass of milk
and piece of pie, in a lunchroom near
the store, Is cents; first class entire din
ner, from soup to French coffee, in a
neat little obscure restaurant which we
can across, 35 cents. Total for days
eating, IS cents: for the week (of six
working days., $500. On Sunday we
! stuck to the week day programme as far
DIS breakfast and luncheon were con-
cerned, and paid fifty cents for a good
Sunday dinner. Thus a weeks good,
substantial food costs me "a. 10. which,
with the $3.50 room rent. mount to
1920.
1t costs me sixty cents q week to ride
to and from my work. Figuring at ten
, cents a week for my Press, seventy cents
is added to the $7.20. My smoking is
confined t. a couple of pipes every even
ing, and a ten cent package of tobacco
sees me through the week. Total. sight
dollars.
have a permanent arrangement with
a Celtic lady to do my washing for fifty
cents n week, and l have my collars aid
cuffs polished at a laundry at a weekly
outlay of twenty-five cents. Total, S.. Is.
Once every week l invest one dollar
Tor two balcony seats at a first class
theater-$9.75. l invariably lay aside
two dollars a week for raiment of all
sorts, fixed on this basis: Two dollars a
week is $104 a year. have two suits Of
clothes every twelve months, each suit
costing me twenty dollars, and l a get
natty clothes made to order at that fig
ure. don't get a new overcoat every
winter, but when l do l get a good, well
made heavy n for fifteen dollars. Call
it ffty-fve dollars. Two pairs Of shoes
at four dollars a pair get me through a
year, and two hats, also at four dollars
each, are my allowance for the twelve
months. Two pairs Of gloves a winter,
at n dollar a pair, keep my hands
sheltered from the blasts, and eight
fifty cent cravats are enough for the
year. This figures up seventy-seven
dollars, and the remaining twenty-seven
of my dress allowance of $104 a year are
spent i'll collars. cuffs, underwear and
so on. ID.