European History Gobbet Exercise

464 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. March

LIFE ON A GUINEA A Tf/EEK

TeE present day is essentially one in whichbut few of us can afford to neglect the most rigid rules of economy, and so the question of making the most of a guinea per week has a vital interest for many thousands of individuals . This is especially the case with young men who have come to London to obtain, if not their fortune, at all events their daily bread .

It is only those who have, so to speak, gone through the mill that are in a position to speak of the extent to which a guinea a week can be squeezed when necessity compels. Tltat there are large numbers of young and middle-aged men in London absolutely de­ pendent upon twenty-one shillings per week is a proposition which admits of no question. And the manner in which this....:..to many an impoesible-scheme is carried into effect cannot but be intere sting to readers who have neither need nor inclination for pursuing a ,similar course of frugality.

It is upon clerks more particularly that the principles of economy fall hard when supplemented by an impera tive demand for respect­

;a,bility. They must present a decent appearance and possess a very fair education-the more perfect and varied the better so far as the chance of obtaining a situation is concerned, but very rarely does it ,command an appreciably higher rate of &alary. These and many other collateral matters have scarcely any place in the calculations -of a mechanic or artisan, who preferably selects the coarsest and most wearable material as clothing. Even this is protected whilst the man is at work by a rough apron. If one of the lat ter class buys a three-and-sixpenny felt hat he makes it last for many months for Sundays, and after that it is 'good enough ' for a couple of years for everyday wear. With a clerk it is different; self-respect, if no­ thing else, would be sufficiently strong to prevent bis going ' to business ' in a battered hat. Very few journeymen mechanics are paid so little as a guinea per week, which is a very common salary for clerks who have long passed the junior stage. Bank clerks are of course paid at a higher rate.

But the primary object of this article is to show the possibilities of a weekly guinea, and bow the two ends are made to meet upon so small a sum. At the starting point a twelvemonth's outlay upon

1888 LIFE ON .A GUINEA .A WEEK. 465

clothing must be considered, and the following table is compiled from the present writer's 'weekly account' books:-

£ ,. d. 1 overcoat l 16 0 1 umbrella 7 I)

2 hate 6 0 1 silk bat 7 0 1 euit week-dayclothes 2 0 0 1 1uit Sunday clothes 2 10 0 4 pair eockeat 10d .• 3 4 1 pair boots 10 0 R epairing boots 0 0 2 under Tests • 5 0 2 flannel ebirta 6 0 4 eolian • 1 8 2 pair culfa 1 4 Cotton, button!, &c . . 1 0

8 10 10

From this total must be deducted exactly half the. prices of tht overcoat and umbrella, which brings the actual amount down to 7l. 188. 7d. Both these articles should last two year@. It will be observed that no allowance is made for' mending,' which most young men, however, learn to do for themselves, as the present writer knows from experience. Landladies are not over-anxious to sew on buttons at less than a penny each-a charge which the actual labour expended certainly does not warrant. Most men need flannels, chest protec­ tors, and several other little items, but I am only now concerned with my own positive personal and actual expenditure. The fifty­ second part of this amount is, roughly speaking, 3s. Id.; and the actual weekly payments may be tabulated in the following manner:- ,. d.

Rent 6 0 Breakfasts 1 8 Dioners • 0r, Teu 1 0 Boot-<:leaning . 0 3 Coal.a and v,ood 1 0 Wuhiog. 0 0 Tobacco, &:c. 0 0

l(j !?

This amount, added to the trifle over 31. above mentioned, comes to 198. 3d., and of the balance there was none left after an occasional visit to some theatre. As regards dinners, there is said to be con­ siderable beauty in variety, and this might have been the case with my dinners ; but I cannot call to mind any such implied degree of pleasure, and my experiments are of too recent a date to admit of much doubt on the subject. Five shillings cannot be considered an extravagant sum for seven dinners, the most expensive of which waa

466 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. March

that on Sunday, and comprised the landlady's 'dollops' of fatty beef, greasy pork, or underdone mutton, with a digester by way of an extremely small bit of cheese and a huge hunch of bread. The very sight of such a ' spread ' wasenough to give on~ an attack of indiges­ tion. On other days if the quantity was smaller the quality was superior; but London landladies of the second grade appear to have no firith in any other than the former element, in the matter of Sunday dinner s at all events. I have never detected that ver1 desirable quality in any other direction.

There is considerable pleasure, and consequent benefit, in dining at a vegetarian restaurant, or in judiciously laying out sixpence or sevenpence in the middle of the day at an aerated bread shop. Everything at these places is scrupulously clean, and the viands there mpplied are, in my experience, a sort of incentive to eating when the appetite is sated or absent. I have found two vegetarian dinnen in one week quite sufficient in spring and autumn ; in winter one would be enough, but, speaking penonally, when I had an extra ex­ perimental 'fit' on during summer I have taken three. One day in the week I enjoyed an egg or two with bread-61ld-butter and tea or oocoa at the aerated bread shop. On another day ninepence would purchase a plate of rout beef, with potatoes, cabbage, and bread ; andusually on the following day a fish dinner served as the chief meal. Boiled or roe.st mutton, and boiled beef, with the usual supply of one or two vegetables, with or without bread, according to the part of the week or the state of the finances, would form the dinners of at least two days out of the seven. Breakfasts generally came to threepence, which would include an egg, with the chances as to its being good or bad about equally balanced. For a change a rasher of bacon was often tried, but its only merit, were a savoury odour and an evenness and thinn esa which did the carver great credit from his point of view. 'Tea and two' formed the almost invariable afternoon repast, and, by way of explanation, it may be stated that the colloquial phrase signifies a cup of tea and two slices of bread-and-butter. The extraordinary dirtiness and griminess of nearly all the English 'dining-rooms ' have often caused me to leave a meal untouched. I could not then, and can scarcely now, pass these places without an instinctive shudder. All the dirt of the immediate neighbourhood seems to accumulate in and around thellfl pestiferous ' eating-houses.' Suppers were either not approved of or resolved themselves into a penny bun, whichever happened to be the more convenient. It will be observed that no allowance is made in the foregoing table for beer or other strong drinks ; and the reason is not far to seek. Temperance should form a cardinal point in the creed of a man who wishes to live on a gninea a week and be at the same time respectable. The public-house and the fifty-second-rate billiard-room have proved the

l888 LIFE ON .A GUINEA A WEEK. 467

ruin of many hundreds of young clerks who desire to be thought that which they are not, and endeavour to live' fast 'without any possible means of keeping it up for long . The ordinary clerk baa very few chances of earning an income of 150l. or 200l. per annum, but what slender possibilities he may have had are too often broken beyond all hope through the mediums just indicated.

Such, then, is the very brief account of the writer's attempt at eking out an existence at one guinea per week. It can be done, and yet life not be a burden and a perpetual misery to the individual. Many clerks prefer to pay a small subscription to a club rather than visit the theatres or the music halls, and very probably their choice is the wiser. The Y.M.C . .A.'s and kindred institutions do excellent work,but their aims are too 'goody-goody ' for many men. A guinea a week, with careful management, can be made to go a very long way.

w. ROBERTS.