The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-06-22
High Prices and High Iivers.

In the Yale Rerier Mr.. FREDERICK
bling world to High Prices and High
Living" 4 Fortunatus able to collect
rare books even in these swollen times
when the lean pursed amateur looks
bitterly at booksellers as malefactors
of great wealth. Mr.. DICKSON Is a
model of philosophic detachment. and
he lightens the dismal science with
amusing eighteenth century instances
and modern compa risons:
In 1870 a spade cost four shillings
and two pence. and the man who used 1t
got five pence day. Women laboring
in the hay field earned seven cents: a
tailor from eight TO Is cents, and a ma
son % cents for a days work. To-day
the wages OF this class OF labor has in
creased from fifteen to twenty-fold. A
clergymen then got fifty pounds. though
1t may be remembered that Parson ADAMS
in l742 supported wife and six children
on twenty-three pounds, while GOLD
SMITHS curate was passing rich on forty
pounds year"
Does Mr.. DICKSON believe that q
to-day gets S1.40 or even 81 day:
The masons he has in mind must be
members Of the highly organized Amer
lean craft. As for tallors, meaning
mostly workers for tailors. their wages
are not yet colossal in London or New
York. Would 1t not be nearer the fact
TO say that ten cents day in the
eighteenth century. with its class divi-
sons. low standards OF comfort for the
INA jority, was worth good deal more
ana event good deal further than
II dollar to-day? SO multiplied by ten,
Parson ADAMss stipend was more than
twice the income OF thousands Of living
cIergymen. Poor as he was, he had
more revenue. as well as more Greek,
than many or most Of his successors.
ON the other hand, the price of many
articles has fallen remarkably. Apples
We're worth $3.50 II barrel in eighteenth
century Scotland. Tea, Il curiosity In
the seventeenth century, was worth So
cents pound on the average In 1TJ5.
Bananas, which "Our grandfathers
never saw" cost our fathers ten cents
apiece; and now "the corporation that
brings them TO our doors should, in
the judgment of the very wise, be taxed
ont of existence" Oranges lemons,
sugar, have gone down. Kerosene oil
al nlnun 1arlinht annthar
work OF an abhorrent monopoly. Nut.
ton. pork, poultry, fish. eggs. all trail
on the upward path, following the arch
criminal beef which becomes scarcer
and scarcer as the area of land open
To the cattle men lessons. One glance
at the primitive '70s:
Everybody, even in considerable towns,
kept chickens and nearly everybody a
pig and a cow, and all this live stock was
permitted TO roam at will through the
streets, Pigs were butchered In the back
yards NJ private residences. and the car
cass hung from the branches OF con-
venlent apple tree. The butcher bought
what cattle he could, and al times the
meat was excellent In quality. but more
often the carcass was that Of COW that
no longer gave milk, OF bull that had
lost his bloom, or OF a steer whose work
under the yoke was no longer efficient |
and invariably a steak for dinner was |
heraded by The vigorous pounding with |
the potato masher welded by the stall |
wart arm OF the cook. The average quail |
lily OF beef was SO poor that pork was
rightly preferred as food. and was sold |
for double the price Of beef
That fat fruit hangs in orchard
rloses no more hut Ia the sound of the |