Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1893-04-29
LIVING ON LOW WAGE.
HOW TWO YOUNG FELLOWS MAN
AGED TO EXIST IN NEW YORK.

Twelve Dollars a Week Does Not Go Yer,
Far in Big City, but These Tw,
! Economical Men Made Their Money G,
| Pretty Good Distance for Time.
| A magazine writer, who claimed tC
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 $4,000 tc
$4,000 year for their personal comfort
There is 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 week, for instance, the account OF
how 81, 900 per annum bachelor wards
off ennui and retains his flesh reads like
saturnalia.
know the effect of all this on $50 a
week man, because | myself belong to
the $50 week class. Twenty dollars a
week is about 81 600 year, and l have
three years on that sum. | know lot
of other fellows who do the same thing,
for $50 week is about the average i'll
come of half the neat looking chaps
wearing chrysanthemums pinned to kerr
sey top coats that you run across in the
course of day.
When | came to this town from farm
I L.
man who offered me permanent job as
salesman at salary of $12 week was
widely extravagant, for had already
learned some scrimping lessons. 1t did
not take me long to find out my mistake,
and so | devised system Of expendi-
lures, and though in five yeares my in
come has increased, as | have told you,
have stuck to it ever since. Here it is:
discovered to my complete satisfac-
ton that single man can't get any sort
of nourishment, comfort or repose in a
boarding house in New York city for
less than eight dollars 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 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 were getting most of our pay.
We decided to hire 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 large, comfort
able ground floor rear 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 So 50
Of my wages. When we had stuck up
Oh the walls the cabinet photos of all
the girls we knew, and had distributed
the knickknacks which these girls had
given us, the room looked simply i'm
mense.
The eating problem was then to be
overcome. After sundry experiences we
adjusted it on this basis: Breakfast of
rolls and good coffee in little shop
block from where we lived, Is cents;
luncheon of sandwich, glass of milk
and piece of pie, in lunchroom near
the store, Is cents; first class entire din
ner, from soup to French coffee, in
neat little obscure restaurant which we
ran 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
as breakfast and luncheon were con-
cerned, and paid fifty cents for good
Sunday dinner. Thus a weeks good,
substantial food costs me 81 20, which,
with the $3.50 room rent, amounts to
500.
1t costs me sixty cents a week to ride
to and from my work. Figuring at ten
cents week formy Press, seventy cents
is added to the $1.2O. My smoking is
confined to a couple of pipes every even
ing, and ten cent package of tobacco
sees me through the week. Total, eight
dollars.
have a permanent arrangement with
Celtic lady TO do my washing for fifty
cents a week, and have my collars and
cuffs polished at Il laundry at q weekly
outlay of twenty-five cents. Total, SS.73
Once every week | invest one dolla;
for two balcony seats at first class
theater-$9.75. | invariably lay aside
two dollars week for raiment of all
sorts, fixed ON this basis: Two dollars
week is $lO4 year. have two suits of
clothes every twelve months, each suit
costing me twenty dollars, ana can get
natty clothes made to order at that fig
are don't get IL new overcoat every
winter, but when do get good, well
made heavy one for fifteen dollars. Call
it fifty-fve dollars. Two pairs of shoes
Mt four dollars 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 one dollar pair, keep my hands
gheltered from the blasts, and eight
Fifty cent cravats are enough for the
year. This figures up seventyseven
lollars, and the remaining twenty
Vt my dress allowance of $l04 a year are
lpent in collars, cuffs, underwear and
so on.
The $4,000 year bachelor will be
astonished to read that am frequently
referred to as p man who looks as
though he had just jumped out of a
bandbox.
When have laid aside the two dol
,iss week for dress have just s.. %
hft for hilayity and tempestuous plung-
ing into the ooisterous stream of New
York life. l. very frequently happens
that have some of this still in my
right hand pantaloons pocket when /
get through the week.
That's the way live. do it because
it's case of must, although never
have poverty stricken sensation.-New
York Press.