encouragement. Joiners one and three-quarters, and masons two dollars a-day. They usually pay three dollars, or upwards, a-week for their board.
Many of the necessaries of life are here purchased at high prices. Woollen cloths and most articles of wearing apparel imported, pay duties, varying, in different cases, from 25 to 33 per cent. In transacting with the merchant and the tailor, farther American enhancements may be calculated upon. Washing and dressing of shirts, neck-*cloths, &c. costs a dollar and a half per dozen. Every thing that an American does, must be liberally paid for. This tends to render living dear, even where provisions are cheap.
Some imported articles, as silks, wines, foreign spirituous liquors, teas, sugar, and coffee, are much cheaper than in Britain. The difference of custom-house duties is the cause of this.
The condition of animals bespeak the great plenty of food that falls to their share. The horses employed in removing goods to and from the wharfs, and in stage coaches, are fat, and in high spirits. They are not so rough-legged, so broad, or so strong-limbed, as the draught horses of Britain; but they are better adapted for speed. Hogs, running in the streets, are numerous, but they are not starvelings. I have seen several of them that would yield upwards of 300 lbs. of pork without special feeding. Speaking of hogs, I would mention by the way, that they are allowed to run at large for the purpose of cleaning the streets. An economical way of procuring scavengers, {8} but one that leads to a commutation of nuisance rather than a final removal of it.
July 12. Last night the heat was excessive, and not accompanied with a breath of wind. It was in vain that
