The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-04-22
CHEAPNESS IN JAPAN
How the Fall of Silver Affects the
Country and the People.
Low Figures at Which Necessaries and
Luxuries of Life Are Sold-.LabOr
Brings 10 to 20 Cents Day.


all she can to keep silver in the air. She
has to pay for the goods she imports from
America in gold. and the silver question is
far more important one here than IL has
ever been in the United States. The coun-
try is now on a silver basis, and there is
sure to be a general rise in the prices of
everything. AT the present writing .ex-
change is going up every day, and gold
dollar in Toxic looks as big as the cover of
japanese umbrella Such foreigners as
are here who get their incomes from Amer
lea are rich through the fall of silver, and
they now get two dollars for every one that
is sent out to them from home. I made
out a draft of 800 my New York letter
of credit at the bank this morning and got
sos for it, and the money 1 have brought
with me has doubled in value. This makes
travelling comparatively cheap, and though
L have been paying 81 day. at the Grand
Hotel in Yokohama, 1t really costs me only
81. Clothing here is wonderfully cheap, and
all English goods can be bought for the
same prices they bring in London. The
treaties with Japan prohibit her from
charging more than per cent duty and
labor is worth so little that one could come
across the Pacific and save the expenses of
the trip by laying in a stock of clothes for
himself and his family. The tailors are
Chinese, but they give you good cuts, and
you do not need to pay if the clothes do
not fit you. You can get a good business
suit of English goods made to order for
about ten American dollars. Patent leather
shoes made to order cost $3.50, and fur
lined overcoat with beaver collar and cuffs
can be bought for about $50 in gold. You
could not buy the cloth, to say nothing of
ica- Ladies' dresses are equally cheap, and
you get wonderfully embroidered gowns of
silk crepe for less than the ordinary street
dress costs you In the United States.
EFFECTS OF THE FALL IN SILVER.
This reduction in silver makes a Won
derful profit for our missionaries and dip
donates. a missionary who is getting
thousand dollars a year has now two thou
sand dollars to spend. The American min
lister to japan, who receives, if my men,
DRY serves me- twelve thousand dollars an
nually, gets at least twenty-four thousand
dollars worth of value out of It. and the
salaries OF our consuls are practically
doubled by the change. An American
family living on a fixed income at home
could come 10 Japan and have twice
the comforts for half the money, and l am
surprised at the wonderful cheapness of
all sorts of eatables, from cabbage TO cham
payne. 1 took an interpreter with me to
the market this morning and spent some
hours in finding out the prices of the nee
essaries of life. 1 found the articles sold
fully as good and, in most cases, superior
TO those you find in America and the
prices were from one-twentieth to one
half of those we pay. I have reduced them
from the silver to the gold basis and give
you a few Of them. First, take the meats.
These are very high, as the Japanese do
not use them, and they are chiefly de-
manded by foreigners. 1 found that fine
rib roasts of beef cost cents a pound,
and was shown veal and bacon at 10 cents.
Chickens are worth from to 20 cents
apiece You buy teal ducks for s cents
each and eggs are worth from to 10 cents
dozen. Quail cost from to Z cents.
Reed birds. 16 cents a dozen. and snipe
cents each Think of it! A good snipe
for a nickel There are no better vegetables
I'm the world than those you find here and
the fish of japan are far superior to those
| of America All fish are sold when they
| are alive or still kicking. HOLSTERS run
from a half cent to five cents apiece.
Fine fresh mackerel bring from to cents
and sole from to 10. You can get perch
as low as cents each and tai fish, the
| best fish in Japan, at from cents to so
cents according TO size oysters are worth
| u cents a gallon, and eels bring 10 cents a
pound AS to vegetables, they sold in
| most cases by the pound, ranging from half
cent upwards. Cabbages bring from 1 to
| cents each. Lettuce about a quarter Of a
| cent bunch and radishes about the same.
| You set a fine caulifiower for from to 10
| cents, and fresh mushrooms cost five cents
| pound. Soft coal costs So a ton, and fire
| wood. sold in little bundles about as large
| as a bundle of kindling. from l to 3 cents
| each. These figures, as we'll as those fol-
lowing this, are on the gold and not the
| silver basis.
| CHEAP ------TDTE2S.
| AL sorts of Injuries are cheap. You can
| buy Mumms extra dry champagne for less
than a dollar and a half a quart, and good
| Manila cigars cost from / to cents each
| Cigarettes. which are now being imported
| by the million from the United States
| and which are being introduced in large
/ quantities amor /; both the men and women
| of Japan, are far cheaper than at home
and what. we pay cents and 10 cents a
| package for sells here for from / 10
cents a package. Servants are very CHEAP
! and very good The foreign housewife has
| nothing to do, and she lives like a queen
| The japanese cooks are far better thar
! ours, and $40 a month will pay the board
| and salaries of the help of an elght-room
| house 1 have a friend who lives as vel
| here as many millionaire does in the
| United States, and he does not
| expend more than this amount. He
| pays his cook S. month Hi:
butler gets $780, and his gardener and Sec
| ond girl get about the same. These servant.
all board themselves and the cook doe:
the marketing His rent costs him less thar
| $40 month, though he lives in one of the
| best ports of Japan, and he could have
coachman at IS more. He has no trouble
about getting good servants, and he tell:
| me they watch after his interests and SCI
| that he is not cheated by any one else but
| themselves. 1t is far easier TO live well here
| than in America, and / predict that the
time will come when many American fam
| lilies with fixed but comparatively limited
incomes will come to Japan instead of go
ing to Europe, as they are now doing. A.
to the table, they can nowhere find better
eating. In some cases the cooks take con
tracts to do all the marketing cook tn,
meals and supply the table at fixed price
per day. A well-to-do family of Kobe lives
in this way, and for three yen, or abou