s it a wonder that Saturday
night and Sunday, the chosen periods for drinking heavily, are productive
of more murders and assaults than any other portion of the week?

LXIV. WHAT IT COSTS TO LIVE IN NEW YORK.

The question is very frequently asked, "Is living in New York very
expensive?" An emphatic affirmative may be safely returned to every such
interrogatory. Let one's idea of comfort be what it may, it is
impossible to live cheaply in this city with any degree of decency. One
can go to a cellar lodging-house, and live for from twenty to forty cents
a day, but he will find himself overcharged for the accommodation given
him. He may live in a tenement house, and his expenses will still be
disproportioned to the return received. The discomforts of life in New
York, however, fall chiefly upon educated and refined people of moderate
means. The very rich have an abundance for their wants, and are able to
make their arrangements to suit themselves. The very poor expect nothing
but misery.

To begin at the beginning, the expenses of a family in fashionable life
are something appalling. Fifty thousand dollars per annum may be set
down as the average outlay of a family of five or six persons residing in
a fashionable street, and owning their residence. Some persons spend
more, some less, but this amount may be taken as a fair average, and it
will not admit of much of what would be called extravagance in such a
station.

For those who own their houses, keep a carriage, and do not "live
fashionably," or give many entertainments, the average is from fifteen to
twenty thousand dollars.

For those who aspire to live in comfort and in a respectable
neighborhood, and to occupy a whole house, the average is from five to
six thousand dollars. With six thousand dollars a year, a family of five
persons, living in a rented house, will be compelled to economise. Those
who have smaller incomes are obliged to board, to occupy a part of a
house, or to leave the city.

The average rent of a moderate sized house in New York is $1800 per
annum. This amount may or may not include the use of the gas fixtures,
and the house may or may not have a furnace in it. There will be a
dining-room and kitchen, with hall or passage in the basement. The first
floor will contain two parlors and the front hall. The second floor will
contain a bath-room, water closet, and two, or perhaps three, chambers.
The third floor usually con