The Innocents Abroad


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grapes. When I found that this mustang was clerking in a fruit  
establishment (he had the establishment along with him in a basket,) at  
two cents a day, and that he had no palace at home where he lived, I lost  
some of my enthusiasm concerning the happiness of living in Italy.  
This naturally suggests to me a thought about wages here. Lieutenants in  
the army get about a dollar a day, and common soldiers a couple of cents.  
I only know one clerk--he gets four dollars a month. Printers get six  
dollars and a half a month, but I have heard of a foreman who gets  
thirteen.  
To be growing suddenly and violently rich, as this man is, naturally  
makes him a bloated aristocrat. The airs he puts on are insufferable.  
And, speaking of wages, reminds me of prices of merchandise. In Paris  
you pay twelve dollars a dozen for Jouvin's best kid gloves; gloves of  
about as good quality sell here at three or four dollars a dozen. You  
pay five and six dollars apiece for fine linen shirts in Paris; here and  
in Leghorn you pay two and a half. In Marseilles you pay forty dollars  
for a first-class dress coat made by a good tailor, but in Leghorn you  
can get a full dress suit for the same money. Here you get handsome  
business suits at from ten to twenty dollars, and in Leghorn you can get  
an overcoat for fifteen dollars that would cost you seventy in New York.  
Fine kid boots are worth eight dollars in Marseilles and four dollars  
here. Lyons velvets rank higher in America than those of Genoa. Yet the  
bulk of Lyons velvets you buy in the States are made in Genoa and  
364  


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