While the necessaries of life have not increased in cost, wages are from twenty-five to fifty per cent. higher, and the working classes no longer live in damp cellars or in dark courts and alleys, but have at their disposal cheerful, sanitary, and convenient homes. CHAPTER IV. BUSINESS LIFE. On my return home from Australia and South America I entered my father's office. It was noted for hard work and late hours. The principals seldom left for home before seven and eight in the evening, and on Friday nights, when we wrote our cotton circular, and despatched our American mail, it was usually eleven o'clock before we were able to get away, and many of the juniors had to work all night. In those days everything was done by correspondence, and mail letters often ran to a great length, frequently ten and twelve pages; and unfortunately the principals wasted much of their time in the middle of the day. The morning's work always commenced with reading the letters aloud by the head clerk, and afterwards the principals gave instructions as to replies to be sent, and laid out the work for the day. In those times the business of a merchant's office was much more laborious, and the risks they ran were greater and longer than they are to-day, when we have the assistance of telegraphic communication with all the world. We often refer to the good old days, but they were days of much anxiety and hard work, and I doubt if the profits were as large; the risks were certainly much greater, and added to this there was a constant recurrence of panics. We had a money panic almost every ten years, 1847, 1857, 1866, of the severity of which we to-day can form very little idea. It was not merely that the bank rate advanced to eight, nine, and even ten per cent., but it was impossible to get money at any price. Bank bills were not discountable, and all kinds of produce became unsaleable. In addition to these great panics we had frequent small panics of a very alarming character. I well remember the panics of 1857 and 1866; the intense anxiety and the impossibility of converting either bills or produce into cash.