The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-03-22
POOR MEN IN NEW YORK.
Small Salaries Are the Rule. but
People Manage to Live.
Commercial Advertiser.

new 10rk commercial Advertiser.
New York has often been called a city
Of paupers and millionaires. The city con-
veys to a stranger the impression that its
advantages are for the rich, and that the
matter OF fact New York is like any other
American city, with the single exception
that 1t costs more to support a large family
here than elsewhere. But the small fam
lies and the single men can live as cheaply
here as in Cincinnati or st. Louis. 1t is
stated that a bachelor may live here, and
in considerable comfort, and get more for
what he sepnds than anywhere else in the
I'm snit ED states. Il Is eminently the place
all others, at least on this side of the sea.
Having a regular income of $500 or g, 0O0.
small at 1t is, he can get on if he be a frugal
manager without friction or loss of dignity.
he cannot, obviously, stay at a very good
hotel or take his meals at a high-class
restaurant. But he can get wholesome and
sufficient food in quiet out-of-the-way
places-no city on the globe except Paris
and can sleep and keep his trunk in a
hall bedroom. Three suits of clothes-one
for business, one for morning or afternoon
ana one Tor eventng-will serve his purpose.
Here nobody asks or cares where or how
one lives. If one be reputable, presentable
CURED in ones outward relation to ones
acquaintances.
Upon a saiary, OF $4,000 or 5000 a year a
bachelor may here enjoy luxury which. as
a husband, he could scarcely compass with
five or six times the amount. If he cares for
society he IS generally welcome to pleasant,
refined circles, though if he wish to keep
his bachelorhood and not entrench on his
capital, he would better shun them. Pleas
ant circles have pleasant maiden daughters
VINO are always dangerous and capable of
overcoming. in a most mysterious manner.
anti-matrimonial views supposed to be in
1exfble. Many a bachelor of limited means
has become a benedict before fairly UNDER
standing his peril. The cost of living steadily
increases here much more proportionately
than wages do. The average earnings of
fairly educated, more or less refined men,
native born, many of them Anglo-Ameri-
cans. are not, it is reported, above 81 500 or
81 1000 a year. The figures may seem too low
when we remember how many. men get
who can do something better than the
mass of their fellows, and they are not
many in a comparative sense.
married. How do they live? The common
saying that one-half of the world does not
know how the other half lives applies in
this case. We of this city seldom think
acquainted even with their names; feel no
Concern in or for them, unless eircum-
stances in some way indfvidualize them.
But now do they live? 1t would be inter-
of them, though employed here, have their
homes out of town-in Brooklyn, or else
where on Long island; in Westchester coun-
ty, on Staten island. i'll New Jersey-for
the sake of cheaper rent and various little
economies. Necessities are cheap in Man
haitian, luxurieS are very dear, and so many
that we seem to need them mainly. the
necessities being almost superfuous. We can
get on with a few luxuries. if single. To
marry, therefore, is to divide an Income
by four or five. A great many men are
annually deferred from matrimony in this
city solely by want of sufficient means.
A great many more are not SO deferred,
and their marriage afterWard produces
much misery, and ends in separation and di-
vorce; the misery and divorce resulting di-
rectly or indirectly from their straitened
circumstances.