Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1902-11-08
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WHERE COMFORTS ARE CHEAP.
More Real Wealth South Than Else
where.


where.
"If there's one place on this conti-
nent where a poor man may feel like
a grandee, it's down SOUTH" said the
man who has just brought his family
home from a long stay in the Santee
region of South Carolina. "Bless me,
if the cost of living down there and the
way money can be spun out does not
set ones ideas of value topsy-turvy!
IT went down to nurse up an ailine
xe-handle and wooden-ware factory.
And from the day we set up housekeep-
ing my wife never ceased to be inter-
ested and delighted at the small cost
of things.
"'Would you believe it, the regula-
ton wages for a cook in this town are
$3.50 a month"; she told me over our
first meal. OF course, the cook has
quarters furnished her to live In out
over the kitchen. And I understand
that she can be counted on to steal
more or less regularly from the kitch-
en- supplies. But she knows how To
cook and how to be civil-spoken, and
she's obliging. All for that money!!
"T thought to be sure, when she
first said she would work for $3.50, that
she meant that sum by the week and
not the month. One can have whole
retinue Of servants here, cook, laun-
dress, nurse girl and house boy for less
than it costs to pay one woman-of-all-
work up north
Another time it would be the cost of
fuel that excited my wife.
GA whole wagon load Of wood
good, solid oak wood-for $1.5O, Ed
ward she would say. And big, two
horse wagonful, at that. You should
have seen the old uncle who brought 1t.
He assured me that he had picked it all
out partic'lar' And the wood sawyer
who goes around from house to house
with his hand saw, will saw and split 1t
all up in fireplace lengths for so cents.
1t seems like a fairy tale
1.-The first week of our southern
housekeeping brought out many sur
prises. The washing, laundering, was
not to be paid for by the dozen, nor
even the choicest pieces. The smiling,
wide-waisted black auntie who called
to solicit the post of washer had never
heard of taking in washing by the
dozen.
81 amt gwine ter charge no more
than what's right she said as prelimi-
nary to business. You jist pick up all
de clothes what's soil for me on a Mon
day, honey. All de house tings and
bed things an body clothes, not scusin'
de shirts. Use q proud hand wild gen.
tlemen's tings. An I'll come git 'em
and fotch 'em back ebery Saturday af-
ternoon, clean an clear starch. If you
ain got no fault to find you kin pay
me 81 a month for your family busi-
ness. I'll be saterfy.'
This wash lady, who balanced her
big wash basket on her head as though
it was an airy headdress, became a
stanch retainer of the family. The
mistress having once or twice given her
remedy for rheumatism, she vowed
eternal fealty, declaring to me that
Miss Louisa understood her insist
ence'-she meant her system-better
than anybody she had ever worked for.
"'Just fancy, Ed, what l got that
great front piazza and steps secured
for today, my wife asked, to challenge
curiosity. You know the piazza goes
around both ends of the house and
there's two sets of steps to clean. Well,
one single quarter was all the woman
asked to scour it. I feel as If 1 had
been at a bargain counter and brought
off a great prize without having had to
wait interminably to get hold of it.
I'm other than purely domestic mat
ters a fascinating cheapness ruled. If
you wanted a horse and buggy to go
out into the country, you could have it
for a whole day for $3.50. The hire of
gun, of wheel, of guide for any pur-
pose was nearly always about one
third less than you had fancied 1t would
be. If there was some little painting
or alteration to be done about the
premises, it could be completed for next
to nothing, the painstaking carpenter
acting with the greatest politeness and
as though it was a privilege to get the
job.
Certainly a coin goes far in Dixie.
Once when accompanying surveyor
through swamp land he was trying to