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Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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Fri, 11 Jul 1997 16:12:55 -0400
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Dennis Kelly wrote:
>
> Does anyone have a handy comparison of what a dollar bought in Huck Finn's
> day?

Victor Doyno places a 1990 value between $572 and $693 for the $40 Huck
received in the smallpox incident (_Writing Huck Finn_,142).

> What did it cost to buy a loaf of bread or a chicken?

Clemens reported that the price of "Flour ranges from from $8 to $9 50" on
the St. Louis market, 5 Nov. 1855.  I do not know the unit of measure or
how much flour is needed for bread.  Items in the report with a unit of
measure include "Potatoes $2 to $2 25 per bushel" and "Eggs (retail) 30c
per dozen" (_MT's Letters_, I, 56).

On 21 Nov. 1860, Clemens, who was then speculating in commodities to be
sold in New Orleans, complained to Orion that the price of chickens sold
on the New Orleans market fluctuated from less than $3.00 to $7.00 per
doz.  Meanwhile, eggs which had been selling at 40c per doz dropped to 12
1/2c after Clemens invested in 15c eggs (_Letters_, I, 103).

> How much was deck passage up the Ohio?

I don't know, but you might extrapolate from the two dollars Clemens
presumably paid for deck passage for the fourteen-hour voyage from Saint
Louis to Hannibal in 1855 (_MT' Notebooks & Journals, I, 18).  (It now
takes considerably longer and a lot more money by steamboat.)

thanks, larry marshburne

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