The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-09-15

may be bearing the fruit of the polite
ness which was bred of a knowledge Of
a very present penalty to DE paid for
the use of insult or foul language to
another in loss of life or limb by the
prompt action of the insulted enc.
The note of lavishness: This is per-
haps the strongest impression made
upon a European stranger arriving in
such a city as Boston, FOR instance.
He sees with ever growing amazefnent
gigantic piles of buildings built in most
costly fashion, as IL their builders
knew not how to spend enough upon
them. He goes into vast department
store on any ordinary day and finds IL
crammed through all it's dozen or so of
stories, its acres of floor spaces, with
goods of utmost value piled in noun
famous heaps which are rapidly melt
ing away under the steady stress of
purchase by the huge crowds that come
and go. In fancy he sees steady Ca
taract of wealth descending into the
Golfers of the firm and again flowing
forth in no less lavish expenditure to
another set of seekers after wealth.
Nothing at all like 1t is to be seen any
where else in the world.
If he enters a hotel, everything is on
a colossal scale, especially the prices,
unless he find his way downtown to less
desirable stopping places. For every
shilling or franc or mark he has been
accustomed to spend at home he must
be prepared to substitute a dollar here
in his hotel If il be high-class one.
But then everything that he will re-
ceive for his dollars will certainly be
correspondingly higher in quality and
quantity. Yet, strangely enough, once
outside the hotel doors and wandering
among the stores, this idea of the COM
parative purchasing power of money
here and in Europe is turned upside
down. The majority of articles OF
food, of raiment, of every day use
generally are so much cheaper than in
England, that is TO say, such articles
as would be purchased by middle-class
people. And l am bound to say that
the quality looks higher, while the
taste displayed is in most instances
far greater. / could give very many
instances of this II necessary, having
been for many years close observer
of the prices of commodities at home,
but / will confine myself for reasons
of space to one. that of the cost of
furniture. After the most careful ex-
animation into quality and price on
both sides of the Atlantic, l deliber-
ately state IL as my belief that for
furniture of equal quality in every re-
spect the cost in Great Britain would
be more than double what 1t Is here.
Then there is the lavishness in food
The bill of fare in any of your large
hotels is enough to stagger any Eu-
ropean. But IL does not startle any of
you. How you do eat, to be sure!
that bewildering maze of fruit,
soups, fish, fowl, flesh and sweets you
roam, philosophically absorbing, with
the aid of copious draughts of iced
water, sufficient food at one meal TO
last the average slow moving English
man two days. Perhaps the explana-
ton OF this voracity is to be found in
the aforementioned fact Of your living
at high pressure, whether IL be of
brain or muscle. Food must be need
ed in great quantities to repair the
waste, and you take II with an envi-
able result. 1t must be the main rea-
son of your superb stamina, and ac-
count, too, partly, IL not wholly, for
the strange fact that of every dozen
persons one meets on the street any
where, eleven give you a glitterlng
smile by reason of their teeth having
been filled with gold at almost fabu-
lous cost. Because hot bread and Ice
cold water, to say nothing of all man
ner of strangely indigestible dishes at
short intervals play havoc with the
teeth and have made American dem
tistry q household word for skill and
costliness.
Lavlshness In religious matters, also
But here the business instinct shines
in that there IL nothing un-
usual In constructing an edifice for
spiritual purposes at cost to make