Page:London - The People of the Abyss.djvu/247

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An analysis of one item alone will show how little room there is for waste. Bread, $1: for a family of five, for seven days, one dollar's worth of bread will give each a daily ration of $\overline{$5.25}$ cents; and if they eat three meals a day, each may consume per meal $2 6⁄7$ mills worth of bread, a little less than one cent's worth. Now bread is the heaviest item. They will get less of meat per mouth each meal, and still less of vegetables; while the smaller items become too microscopic for consideration. On the other hand, these food articles are all bought at small retail, the most expensive and wasteful method of purchasing.

While the table given above will permit no extravagance, no overloading of stomachs, it will be noticed that there is no surplus. The whole $5.25 is spent for food and rent. There is no