Only In Its Failure To Clear Up This
Important Point, And In Omitting To Give Descriptions Of The
Costumes Worn By The Two Princes And The Comte, Is Le Figaro's
Story Lacking.
They must have been wearing the very latest creations
too.
This last brings us back again to the subject of clothes and serves
to remind me that, contrary to a belief prevalent on this side of
the water, good clothes cost as much abroad as they cost here.
In England a man may buy gloves and certain substantial articles
of haberdashery in silk and linen and wool at a much lower figure
than in America; and in Italy he will find crocheted handbags and
bead necklaces are to be had cheaper than at home - provided, of
course, he cares for such things as crocheted handbags and bead
necklaces. Handmade laces and embroideries and sundry other
feminine fripperies, so women tell me, are moderately priced on
the Continent, if so be the tourist-purchaser steers clear of the
more fashionable shops and chases the elusive bargain down a back
street; but, quality considered, other things cost as much in
Europe as they cost here - and frequently they cost more. If you
buy at the shopkeeper's first price he has a secret contempt for
you; if you haggle him down to a reasonably fair valuation - say
about twice the amount a native would pay for the same thing - he
has a half-concealed contempt for you; if you refuse to trade at
any price he has an open contempt for you; and in any event he
dislikes you because you are an American. So there you are. No
matter how the transaction turns out you have his contempt; it is
the only thing he parts with at cost.
It is true that you may buy a suit of clothes for ten dollars in
London; so also may you buy a suit of clothes for ten dollars in
any American city, but the reasonably affluent American doesn't
buy ten-dollar suits at home. He saves himself up to indulge in
that form of idiocy abroad. In Paris or Rome you may get a
five-course dinner with wine for forty cents; so you may in certain
quarters of New York; but in either place the man who can afford
to pay more for his dinner will find it to his ultimate well-being
to do so. Simply because a boarding house in France or Italy is
known as a pension doesn't keep it from being a boarding house
- and a pretty average bad one, as I have been informed by misguided
Americans who tried living at a pension, and afterwards put in a
good deal of their spare time regretting it.
Altogether, looking back on my own experiences, I can at this time
of writing think of but two common commodities which, when grade
is taken into the equation, are found to be radically cheaper in
Europe than in America - these two things being taxicabs and counts.
For their cleanliness and smartness of aspect, and their reasonableness
of meter-fare, taxicabs all over Europe are a constant joy to the
traveling American.
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