The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1905-12-28
LIVING COMES HIGH.
COMPARATIVE PRICES OF FOODS
IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND.
ordinary Articles of Diet Range
Considerably Higher in Europe
Than in merica-Some
Items.

Items.
The cost of living abroad is a subject
upon which there is a wide difference
of opinion among experts. The depart
ment of commerce aud labor has issued
4 statement in which it is asserted that
there is no doubt that the English on the
average have one-third more to spend
than the French, and, all things being
equal, more money is earned in England
than in France. Further, the cost of
living in England is far less than 1t is
In France.
Butter In France costs 30 to so cents a
pound. Swiss cheese 25 to 30 cents a
pound and fowls 30 to so cents EACH
Milk Is 10 cents a quart, bread cents a
pound and meat 30 to so cents pound
Fruits. which are grown abundantly in
France, cost twice as much as they do
in England; bananas and oranges,
which Algiers exports by millions, cost
cents each. Coffee is so to 60 cents a
pound. tea costs as much as S1.40 to
Sl.SO a pound and sugar 10 to IL cents
pound. Coal iu Paris is worth GA a
ton, and in many houses heat is great
rarity. In London two boxes of
matches are given for one cent, but in
France each box costs two cents. and
the matches are bad. Drugs are almost
prohibitively expensive.
NJ de Foville presents the balance
sheet OF four average families. The first.
family, with an income of 81, 900 a year,
represents a Partisan household-fa-
ther, mother, two children attending
school and servant. The second FAM
lily. with an income of 81, 800, represents
a provincial household, consisting of q
father, mother, two children and serv-
ant. The third family with an income
Of $500, is Partisan household, consist
ing OF father, mother, small child and
no servant, and the last is that Of a
workman's family at Rheims, consist
ing OF father, mother, two children, FIVE
and ten years Of age, the family dispos-
ing of purse OF $415 year. The first
family expends $1.744 of It's income for
actual living expenses, and has a bal
ance OF $256 for pleasures, doctors and
so forth: the second family cxpends
$3.50 and has $3.50 left; the third s667,
and has balance of $133. and the fourth
1920, with a balance of S95. In the case
of the third family the food consists of
coffee, bread and butter for breakfast;
at midday meat, vegetables and des-
sert; at four o'clock the mother and
child have chocolate and bread. and at
six O'Clock there is a dinner of soup,
vegetables and dessert.
NJ. de Fovile says that it lies in the
innate inclination--one might say tho
passion-for economy With few
francs the little Parisian, who may be
hungry many days during the year. is
able to make herself a hat and frock
which many wealthy women might well
envy. And it is with the table as IL is
with the toilet. The art of utilizing tho
remnants is an art essentially French,
whether the subject be ribbons or
ragouts. The spirit OF economy is as
common in our country as it is rare Ia
England. Fathers and mothers in
France consider themselves the debtors
OF their children, and even the bachelors
think thy should leave something be-
hind
- Germany foods are comparatively
dearcr than in the United States. For
example, colfees range in prices from "A
to AS cents half kilo, or IL pounds:
tea runs from as 10 95 cents; sugar, gran
ulated, from 0.07S to 0.OS5 cent; rice and
barley, from to S1s cents; butter from
81 TO 33 cents: oleomargarine, much of
which is manufactured, from II to 2l
cents; milk is trine less than cents
a quart; fresh meats sell for about 10
cents pound; bacon, 21 cents; ham. 20
cents; turkeys. "a to 2Sh cents for IL
pounds; potatoes from 95 cents to 81. .O7
for liz pounds.
1t is hardly necessary to say that no
very substantial part of the empires
working people pay any such prices. for
their wages do not permit OF such. The
foods OF the masses. made up In large
part OF fish, herring. cheap meats, pota-
toes and the cheaper forms OF vege-
tables. are high enough to hinder any
hing like luxurious living.