FLORIDA AND THE WEST INDIES 21 



underground transportation, of which we in Europe 

 are, under American teachers, only spelling the 

 alphabet. For a uniform five-cent fare, which is 

 become so much a part of the American economic 

 creed that an attempt to increase it in the suburbs 

 of New York recently led to a riot, those who use 

 the subway can fly across the city from Brooklyn 

 Bridge out to West Farms, and express trains, 

 available by transfer tickets, make the transit 

 between remote points very rapid. The street cars 

 which also favour the five-cent fare, are equally 

 efficient, and would be still more pleasant if, as is 

 done in every other civilised country, the number 

 of passengers were limited by statute to a reason- 

 able number. 



The food of any city at once luxurious and 

 poverty-stricken does not differ appreciably from 

 that of other capitals. Here, as there, Dives 

 battens on surfeit, and Lazarus looks with pinched 

 face through the window. There seems no remedy 

 for these evils, and if the dreadful contrast is a little 

 more appreciable by reason of the narrowness of 

 the city and consequent proximity of what Sancho 

 Panza calls el tener y el no tener, this is unavoidable. 

 If there is one feature in which the table attractions 

 of this city are a little behind those of some others, 

 it is in the wine list. There is an admirable 

 injunction in the First Epistle to Timothy, which 

 Americans as a rule disregard. The majority drink 

 iced water with their meals and cocktails between 

 times, so that possibly, in the restaurants at anyrate, 

 rare vintages would go unappreciated. In the better 

 eating-houses, food is expensive. The decimal 

 coinage of the country would be admirable, so only 



