Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1903-10-23
LETTERS FROM A VIR.
GINIAN In NEW YORK,

A Northern Necker" Who Has
Won a Position in New
York's Newspaper World
Writes His Home People.
SWELL, how do you like New York;
| have been asked this question so
many times by people of the Northern
Neck that / believe some letters from
a Virginian in the metropolis would
be interesting to readers of the
CITIZEN.
The people of the Northern Neck
should be interested in New York.
La all respects it is great market,
and IN many respects it is the greatest
market of the world. If connections
were better aud cheaper New York
would bring Virginia farmers more
money than they get for their pro.
duce elsew here, and it would be
practically impossible to over-stock
the market. Think of single city
with more than four times the COM
bined population of Baltimore, Wash.
ington and Richmond, with other
great cities lying 80 close in Its
shadow that they are almost part
oft. Hoboken, Jersey City, -Bayonne,
Paterson, the Oranges and Newark
are just across the Hudson river and
In many respects are a part of New
York. Newark has population of
nearly two hundred aud fifty thous-
and. and Jersey City over two hun.
dred thousand,-each of them almost
as large as Washington. There are
scores of smaller towns, ranging in
population from ten tn TWENTY-FIVE
thousand, lying all AROUND this cluster
of cities.
/ have been in New York more
than four years, and yet ! know very
little about it. One might live here
all his life and still remain ignorant
of many great sections of the city.
When first came l realized the i'm
possibility of becoming acquainted
with the city, and l have never tried.
l can usually find my way wherever l
want to 60, and that is enough.
In some respects I like New York
very much. Everything in it speaks
of energy and progress. AS you stand
in the high dome of the World Build
ing the noise of the streets comes up
in a steady roar that seems to say
"work, work, work." Practically
everybody works, and nobody, man
or woman, thinks it a disgrace. The
pine-stick whittier, the sugar-barrel
philosopher, the man who holds down
benches and stools and strolls around
with his hands in his pockets, has no
place here. 1t is "sink or swim" in
New York; there's no floating. The
tide is too strong. ec5s
The best printers, the best builders,
the best artists, the best workers in
every line of human effort, fiud their
way to New York for the simple
reason that the expert gets most for
his labor here. The strife for wealth
is unrelaxing. Competition is fierce.
1t is survival of the fttest, and the
man who can do his work better than
most other men can be fairly sure of
ample compensation. But for the
unframed and the unready, New
York affords no such field. The ten
and fifteen-cent lodging houses of the
East Side are filed with that class.
| would hesitate long before advising
any one to come here. The metro
polls attracts thousands of people
who had far better remain in the
small towns and the country. Their
talents are much better suited to the
life there. In fact, believe il peo-
pie Of the smaller towns worked with
as great energy and concentration as
New Workers they would find in the
small towns advantages and oppor.
tunities for money-making as great
as those in New York, Chicago and
Philadelphia. and in many cases even
greater and safer.
While salaries here are good, living
expenses are correspondingly high.
Board costs anywhere from five to
twelve dollars week. No kind Of
house can be had for less than
forty or fifty dollars month, and
prices range up to one and two hun
dred dollars a month for two-story
and three-story dwellings. New
York's buildings are high; 90 lie every
thing elsel
New York is too cosmopolitan to be
a friendly city. We never know
those who live on the block. People
from every state in the Union and
from every country of the earth are
here, and We are all here to make
money. The man who can get a seat
on fha oar <vof to HE x.,c.L ~ -