The Durham daily globe. (Durham, N.C.) 1889-1894, 1893-01-05
LIVING ON LOW WAGE.
HOW TWO YOUNG FELLOWS MAN
AGED TO EXIST IN NEW YORK.

Twelve Dollars a Week Does Not Go Very
Far In a Big City, but These Tive
Economical Men Made Their Money T..
a Pretty Good Distance for a Time.
A magazine writer, who claimed to
lave investigated the subject, recently
stated that there are several hundreds
Of young and old bachelors in this town
who spend all the way from &c. 900 to
$4,000 a year for their personal comfort.
There is a certain delirious excitation
even 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
lars a week, for instance, the account of
how a So, 900 per nnu bachelor wards
off ennui and retains his flesh reads like
d saturnalia.
| know the effect of all this on a $50 a
week man, because | myself belong to
the $50 a week class. Twenty dollars a
week is about 81 900 q year, and l have
had a lot Of fun out Of life for the past
three years on that sum. know a lot
OIL OLDeT fellows "UO w lIO III III
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 o run across In the
course of a day.
When | came to this town from a farm
in western New York, l thought the
man who offered me a permanent job as
salesman at a salary Of $12 a week was
widely ~extravagant, for l had already
learned some scrimping lessons. 1t did
not take me long to find out my mistake,
and so l devised a system Of expendl-
lures, and though in five yeares my In
come has increased, as | have told you,l
have stuck to it ever since. Here 1t IS:
/ discovered to my complete satisfac-
ton that a single man can't get any sort
/, of nourishment, comfort or repose In a
! boarding house in New York city for
T 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 l set
about to find a better scheme. In the
r same store with me was another young
0 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 were getting most OF u pay.
We decided to hire a room together
and to get u meals in pot luck fashion
-''hustle for our grub on the outside
4 as my chum put it. After pretty care
u full search we hit upon a large, comfort
.1,,o1 Qoo,. a - room in the home
of an elderly widow in Harlem, whom
we soon jollied into the belief that we
\ 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 $2.5L
of nv g When we had stuck uT
on the walls the cabinet photos OF al
. the girls we knew, and had distributed
,, the knickknacks which these girls hao
oiven MS. the room looked simply in
mense.
4 The eating problem was then to b.
overcome. After sundry experiences We
adjusted it on this basis: Breakfast o.
rolls and good coffee in a little shop
block from where we lived, Is cents
- luncheon of a sandwich, glass of MILL
> and piece of pie, in a l%unchroom nea
the store, IS cents; first class entire din
ner, from soup to French coftee, IN
neat little obscure restaurant which W
ran across, 35 cents. Total for day
Heating, 65 cents; for the week GOT 81.
working days., $500 On Sunday w
stuck to the week day programme as Ia
.e> IA breakfast and luncheon were con
cerned. and paid fifty cents for a goo
Sunday dinner Thus n weeks good
Substantial food costs me $40, whlcf
with the So. so room rent, amounts
i7.2O. :,
- It costs me sixty cents a week to rid
to and from my work. Figuring at te
cents a week for my Press, seventy CEN
is added to the $3.50. My smoking
lconfned to a couple of pipes every ever
ling. and a ten cent package OF tobacc
sees me through the week. Total, elgi
dollars. :.
have a permanent arrangement VIII
l., CaItic lady to do my washing for hf'
; lcents a week, and l rave my collars al
lcuffs polished at a laundry at a Week
-outlay of twenty-five cents. Total 70
III Once every week invest n doii'
for two balcony seats at a hrst cIa
heater-$9.15. l lnVarlaOly lay aei
two dollars a week for raiment of
sorts, fixed on this basis: Two dollars
week is $lO4 a year. have two suits
Irlothes every twelve months, each 81
. I~rosting me twenty dollars, and can G
nattv clothes made to order at that Il
nre. don't get a new overcoat eve
winter, but when l do l get a good W
made heavy one for fifteen dollars. G
it ffty-fve dollars. Two pairs OF she
= LAT four dollars a pair get me through
a ! wear. and two hats, also at four doll;
leach, are my allowance for the twel
months. Two pairs of gloves a whit
at one dollar a pair, keep my har
. sheltered from the blasts, and ele
Ns,ftv cent cravats are enough for
wear, This figures up seventy-seH
II .l,a ~a~o aiming tw6ntV-S6V