Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1907-02-26

days amply confirm what the newspa-.
Epers then printed.
This riot of the millions was in.
creased when Calvin S. Brice became
a senator from Ohio and took the fam
Eous Corcoran mansion facing Lafay-
ette Square, directly across from thu
White House. Since then this high
rate of living has been maintained and
even elevated by the ever-swelling
numbers Of multi mil lionaires in SEN
ate, congress and cabinet. 1t is said
that Vice President Morton kept up
t the pace set by Whitney and Brice.
And Vice President Hobart lived mag
nificently and was sumptuous in his
generous and beautiful hospitality.
Thirty thousand dollars a year is very
ordinary outlay for the maintenance
of one of these establ ishments Forty
thousand dollars a year is by no means
rare. There are some who spend as
high as 100000 annually. 4 was told
by one individual that his expenses
are $4,000 every year; and in that es-
Enlistment there is only husband and
wife mo children
This means, of course, an almost un.
interrupted series of sumptuous and
elegant entertainments dinners,
dances, receptions, theater parties,
and what not! Gradual no! rap
idly the result of all this has been to
cause extremely wealthy people not in
public life but devoted to society" to
build palatial winter homes in Wash
ington and make the nations capital
the scene of costly gayety. In the
train of these devotees of pleasure a
lstream of fairly rich people has set in
toward Washington people who do
| not want to build homes but who are
quite willing to rent apartments and
pay price for them which, to the
public man depending upon his salary,
lis absolutely prohibitive. @s
Think now, in contrast, of the cost
of living in Webster's time and even
down to the period of Sumner and
Conkling. Senator Conkling, conced-
eddy one of the greatest men in Amerl-
can public life, lived at tWormley s.
1 a small, old-fashioned hotel conducted
by colored man. His living expenses
were not more than $25 a Week--at
any rate, he could have gotten along
on that amount very we'll
i Thaddeus Stevens, the famous .Com.
moner" from Pennsyl vania and abso.
lutte dictator of the house for several
sessions, lived in a small frame house
Lon "B street southeast none toe
/ pheasant quarter Of the city.
John Al Logan lived at Mrs: Rine's
boarding house, Twelfth street, be
| tween ..H and New York avenue
liable board being SIS month fol
each person.
4 Lot M. Morrell, chairman of tbs
house committee on appropriations
4 lived at a boarding house on Fourth
street between d. and r. streets
q an extremely unfashio nable part of tbs
city, with very modest charges.
& IN 1850 Senator Sumner lived al
Mrs. Cammack's boarding house. Fol
a years Senator Wade Of Ohio lived a
4 Mrs. Hyatt's boarding house. While
Senator William r. Fessenden lived A
E Mrs Chipman's boarding house--s
. very humble hostelry.
Sometimes several senators clubbet
and lived at a single modest boarding
house. For example, in 1866 Senatol
!, Doolittle Of Wisconsin, Senator CoWaI
Of. Pennsylvania, Senators Foote AMI
Collmar of Vermont, all lived at Mrs Vt
Carriers boarding house on "a stree
, northeast.
In the time of Clay, Calhoun ant
I Webster, the living expenses were
even more modest. Common necessi
ties today were Injuries then. Tht
scale Of living from the humblest gov
eminent employee to the greatest sen
ator was only a fraction Of what tbs
same class Of persons of either ex
IRENE absolutely must pay out toda!
! for the simplest existence. The cos
Of living everywhere throughout tn.
Il republic is many hundred per cen
Y what it was hundred years ago, sey
enty-fve years ago, fifty Years ago
Yet, great as has been the cost Of liy
ling throughout the whole nation, tn
!, increase Of the cost Of living in tn
1 republics capital has been vastl!
greater than and enormously out 9
proportion with the greatly increases
cost Of living elsewhere throughou
{ the country. But notwits standing this
{ the salaries OF congressman and sena
tors remain precisely what they wer
/ forty years ago. Most state treasurer
2 and state auditors get much more, an
( hundreds Of county officers get man
times more than the salary OF Uni
> ed States senator.
r And still the latter must live ami