The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1902-08-16
AS an American
Woman Finds 1t

lean home very great item OF ex-
pense IN London are the incessant clean
ing and securing made necessary by the
greasy. horrible soft coal smoke. The
SCOT and CRIME also involve wash bills
OF stupend6us length. Where the fam
lily wash could be done at home I'm the
States, because OF its size IL must be
sent TO a laundry in London. All the
bed and table linen I'm London becomes
gray from the unspeakable coal SCOT
To keep it>white is impossible, and that
is one afiiiction TO which the tidy Amer
lean housekeeper can never accustom
herself
The comparative prices of food re-
main TO be considered. Two articles i
found cheap and good-namely, bread
and bacon. The bakers bread OF Lon
don is better than that OF America; so
Is the bacon. Coffee Is very high priced.
being one OF the commodities on which
Britain charges a duty. i was never
able 10 obtain any an American would
consider fit 10 use for less than as cents
a pound. Quite as good can be bought
i'm America for % cents. The American
housekeeper will find, however that tea
Is very cheap.
Meat IN general is high priced so high
hahN NhiAN u ANOuEdbu VI i<ul-
don's 5000 900 inhabitants scarcely taste
IL. with the exception of bacon, dozen
times a year. Women and children of
ten live almost entirely on bread and
tea, with oatmeal porridge for variety.
For relief from this deadly monotony
OF unattractive diet women sometimes
resort TO gin and porter. Poultry OF all
kinds is dearer than in America, as are
also butter and eggs. MIX ranges
nearly the same in price and Is of ex-
cellent quality. Butter as an article OF
diet for the poor is quite out Of the
question. ] once was told by an expe-
rienced English housekeeper that to put
both butter and jam upon az piece OF
bread at once was objectionable ex-
travagance.
Caulifiowers. strawberries and goose
berries are in their glory in the British
isles and are cheap and delicious. But
of the vegetab bles which vary the menu
in America-squashes tomatoes, lima
beans, navy beans. green corn, okra
and sweet potatoes--w what OF these
You will find none of them except to-
matoes, and these are grown generally
under glass in the Channel islands and
are correspondingly expensive. The av.
erage price is Is cents a pound.
Not a watermelon grows in England.
or an orange, lemon or banana, and hard.
ly a grape. except under glass. There
are no large peach orchards, no great
vineyards out of which come baskets
of luscious grapes that are sold for 5
cents a pound. sometimes less. Lemons
cost always twice as much as in Amer
lea, sometimes more than twice. Ap-
Piles in America are much cheaper and.
always excepting that gay ard ruddy
/ deceiver, the Ben Davis. better than
those of Great Britain; but goose berries
and strawberries cost considerably
more In the States. Finally. II you add
to your living expenses the cab hire
and the everlasting. almost incomputa-
BILE. tipping and feeling whereby both the
native and the foreigner are bied from
| day to day. the United States VIII ac-
tually have the advantage in the matter
of economy. while the comfort and con-
yenience Of householding i'm England
cannot be named alongside OF what the
! family of moderate means get for the
same money i'm the States.
IL the family of moderate means have
children, where and how can they be
educated in London? To every corner