Washington Sentinel

COST OF LIVING IN NEW YORK IN 1788, DESCRIBED BY BRISSOT DE WARVILLE.

If there is a town on the American continent where English luxury displays its follies, it is New York. You will find here the English fashions. In the dress of the woman you will see the most brilliant silks, gauzes, hats, and borrowed hair. Equipages are rare, but they are elegant. The men have more simplicity in their dress; they disdain gewgaws, but they take their revenge in the delicacies of the table. Luxury forms already in this town a class of men very dangerous to society; I mean bachelors. The expense of women causes matrimony to be dreaded by men. Tea forms, as in England, the basis of the principal entertainment. Fruits, though much attended to in this State, are far from possessing the beauty and excellence of those of Europe. I have seen trees, in September, loaded at once with apples and with flowers. M. de Crevecoeur is right in his description of the abundance and good quality of the provisions of New York, in vegetables, flesh, and especially in fish. It is difficult to unite so many advantages in one place. Provisions are dearer at New York than in any other of the northern or middle States. Many things, especially superfluities, are dearer here than in France. A hairdresser asks twenty shillings per month, and washing costs four shillings for a dozen pieces.