The Negro world., 1900-04-28
PLENTY OF MONEY.
an ~ needed by Americans Who
xIsIt the Paris Exposition
Tn, ,Year.

Ben G. Truman, we'll known as a
ess paper writer in Chicago. is now in
aris and in recent letter offers,
arouRh the Chicago Chronicle, some
5gNeetions 20 those contemplating
isit 10 that city during the exposi-
on. He says:
The hotels have all raised their
afes from 10 to so per cent. The Grand
otel & the leading robber of the gang.
wenty years ago a good room could
q secured there for six francs per day,
andes and attendance included; coffee
Or two francs. dejeuner la four
hefte, four francs, aud dinner for six.
ueinding wine. Ten years ago, during
lie exposition of 1889. the same room
vas seven francs. coffee three francs,
Iejeuner five francs and dinner seven,
including wine. Nov, however, the
anne room (incandescent light is Il
rancs, coffee four francs, dejeuner
i've francs and dinner seven, or about
8 per day. and all the meals skinny
same thing every day; same old
ooulette and chicken salad twice day.
AN you imagine so prodigious a steal
Is 80 cents for a cup of abominablc
soffee and a few counted rolls? The
Continental and L'Athanee charge
about the same. All the other hotels
II account charge about from is to o.
francs per day for fun board per month
Or per day--everything is so much
per day, even If it is by the month or
year.
And then you are compelled to fee
from six to ten people almost contin-
ually. Elegant pensions, engineered
By widows of distinguished and la
mented army and navy officers are
higher priced than the high-rate ho-
tells, while life at a regular pension
means taking chances o. being starved
br frozen to death. Next to the hotels
and pensions as freebooters come the
stores, that have put up their prices
quite 20 per cent.
Hats and shoes are so per cent. dear
er than in 1889; neckties that range
from 20 cents TO so cents in New York.
San Francisco and Los Angeles, range
from three francs go cents) TO seven
francs ($l.40) here-and this is the
country of silk manufactures! Cot
ton, linen and woolen goods have near
" all advanced from 20 to 60 per cent.
over what they were in 1889. Canes and
umbrellas and such from 20 to 40 per
cent. Shirts. handkerchiefs and gloves
seem not TO have advanced so much.
"Druggists' goods have gone diabol-
ically out of all sight of all grades OF
polite robbery. A prescription that
would cost 25 cents in San Francisco
Is 81 here. An ounce of castor oil is
so cents, a pint of witch hazel is 80
cents and an ounce of borax 40 cents.
Candies, fruit, clarets, tobacco, cigars
and cigarettes are the only things that
have not been atrociously advanced.
Soap, lead pencils, pen, ink and paper
have advanced 100 per cent. Omnibus
rates are six cents as against four cents
some years ago. The only thing cheap
IL Paris to-day is the cab. which is still
only 80 cents from any one point to an
other within the city, for from one to
Fhree persons. or 20 cents per hour for
same. have met a score or more of
Americans who had come here 70 stay
Tor seseral months. but who are going
back on the North German Lloyd
steamer of the 18th. All OF these go
home without making purchases, and
none OF them will return by the French
line. Really, the foreign feeling
against the hotels and stores here is
intense, and the American and Eng
lish papers OF Paris publish complaints
of some kind daily" Truman is Gl
old traveller and knows what he is talk
ing about. 1t would seem as If the ex-
position were good place to stay
away from.