Abroad at Home: American Ramblings, Observations, and Adventures of Julian StreetStreet, Julian
General
Abroad at Home: American Ramblings, Observations, and Adventures of Julian Street
Street, Julian
United States -- Description and travel; United States -- Social life and customs -- 1865-1918
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Two other Cleveland organizations should be mentioned.
Troop A of the Ohio National Guard is known as one of the most capable
bodies of militia in the entire country. It has been in existence for
some forty years, and its membership has always been recruited from
among the older and wealthier families of the city. The fame of Troop A
has reached beyond Ohio, for under its popular title, "The Black Horse
Troop," it has gone three times to Washington to act as escort to
Presidents of the United States at the time of their inauguration.
Cleveland is, furthermore, the headquarters for trotting racing. The
Cleveland Gentlemen's Driving Club is an old and exceedingly active
body, and its president, Mr. Harry K. Devereux, is also president of the
National Trotting Association.
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A curious and characteristic thing which we encountered in no other city
is the Three-Cent Cult--a legacy left to the city by the late Tom
Johnson. Cleveland's street railway system is controlled by the city
and the fare is not five cents, but three. But that is not all. A
municipal lighting plant is, or soon will be, in operation, with charges
of from one to three cents per kilowatt hour. Also the city has gone
into the dance-hall business. There, too, the usual rate is cut: fifteen
cents will buy five dances in the municipal dance halls, instead of
three. No one will attempt to dispute that dancing, to-day, takes
precedence over the mere matter of eating, yet it is worth mentioning
that the Three-Cent Cult has even found its way into the lunch room.
Sandwiches may be purchased in Cleveland for three cents which are not
any worse than five-cent sandwiches in other cities.
Perhaps the finest thing about the Three-Cent Cult is the fact that it
runs counter to one of the most pronounced and pitiable traits of our
race: wastefulness. Sometimes it seems that, as a people, we take less
pride in what we save than in what we throw away. We have a "There's
more where that came from!" attitude of mind. A man with thousands a
year says: "Hell! What's a hundred?" and a man with hundreds imitates
him on a smaller scale. The humble fraction of a nickel is despised. All
honor, then, to Cleveland--the city which teaches her people that two
cents is worth saving, and then helps them to save it. Two points, in
this connection, are interesting:
One, that Cleveland has been trying to induce the Treasury Department to
resume the coinage of a three-cent piece; another, that the percentage
of depositors in savings banks in Cleveland, in proportion to the
population, is higher than in most other cities. And, by the way, the
savings banks pay 4 per cent.
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Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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