Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1896-10-02
MONEY IN LONDON.
What 1t Will Do and What 1t Will Not
In the Worlds Metropolis.
(SDecial CorresnOndenoe.

Especial Correspondence.
LONDON, Aug. 31.-The farthing in
London is really useful coin. There
are many things you can get for it
milk enough to do for the breakfast of
two people, thread, needles, pins.
matches, soap, bluing, candy, pickles
and so on. Little children go Off on a
hurrah, SO 10 speak, with farthing.
They can get candy, or two apples, or
taffy for it, 1t is about the size of AL
American cent and possesses half its
face value, but its purchasing power is
more than double. 1t is the lowest coin
in English currency.
Altogether the purchasing power of
money is greater in England than it is
III Americas'Of course, if you como over
to London to live in big style it will
cost you much the same as it does at
home, but if you settle down to stay
here and to live quietly you will find
you can live ever so much cheaper.
Rent is lower in the first place. In
the neiehborhood of Russell square, w.
c.. you can get house for 100 guineas
a year. This neighborhood is q very
good one, and the houses are fine and
large and have stables at the back. For
the same houses in New Y FORK you would
have to pay at least $3.50 month. This
difference seems incredible, but know
what I am talking of. The London
houses of which I speak compare very
favorably both for location and comfort
with the best of the houses that lie on
Thirty fourth street between Sixth and
Eighth avenues. According to this
showing the difference in the years rent
is as the difference between 1896 and
$4,000.
OF course, there are ultra swell lOca-
tions in London where I suppose the
rent is as high or nearly as high as it is
in New York. And, again, living in
hotels is very dear because Of the tips
and extras.
If an American tells you that living
in London costs him as much as living
in New York, you may depend upon 1t
that he either puts on ultra style or that
he doesn't know the ropes. II you are
knocking around seeing the sights and
lie of London, a sovereign in your
pocket is as good as go bill would be
in the big town on our side Of the pond.
Yet il you put on style In London,
you have to pay dearly for It. For in
stance, you are taxed for every man
servant You keep-two guineas, I think.
You are taxed for armorial bearings
You must pay for the privilege of hav-
ing crest on your carriage. If you are
MI. Muggins Of Goshawk, Mich, who
has made his pile, and you wish to
prove satisfactorily to the world that
your ancestors were living away back
in the glacial period, you must pay for
that pleasure. To sum up, in London
you must pay for the putting on of airs
While in one way money has more
power in London than 1t has in New
York, in another way it hasn't near the
power-I mean in the way of helping
you on socially. It will do a great deal
for you, to be sure. but it hasn't the
almightiness that it has at home. Here
you will be asked to the best houses If
people believe that you have talent. All
you have to do is to turn up looking
neat and clean. You may not have
your cab fare, but that doesn't matter.
The power that has caused these people
to invite you is not the power Of money.
And If you had all the wealth imagi'
nable and were vulgar or stupid, these
people wouldn't be bothered with you.
Now, I defy any one to tell me that
hard up man could move in the smart
set in New York just because he was
known to be talented. Why, he could
no more do it than he could fly to the
moon. He would have to be able tc
hold his own in the vulgar money sense.
know men in London who can hard
~ pay their room rent, and still they
can 20 almost anywhere they wish.
Yes, money in London has more pur-
chasing power than it has in New York,
but it hasn't the soul crushing power.
Another thing about the money in
London is that it is very largely gold.
You don't often see paper. In fact
shopkeepers see it so little that they are
chary about changing bank note.
BART KENNEDY.