Southern Rose [Gone with the Wind]

Not all relatives in a big family are rich. Now it seems that Philip's family has about a quarter of the family's property. If other relatives with the same surname and in-laws in the family are counted, they own half of Boston. The main reason is that there are a lot of real estate, which is also normal. When a family has multiplied for several generations, there will be many branches and in-laws. It can be said that the "upper class" families in Boston are all married to each other, so they are all in-laws.

Philip is a good dancer, and besides the waltz, he knows several other dance steps, but now the popular social dance is the waltz, and most of the balls are waltzes.

As for the fact that "if you are rich, others won't make you unhappy", she also fully experienced it at the engagement ball. Except for a very few relatives, everyone else expressed their sincere congratulations to the two of them. There are also many people who flatter, and some enthusiastic relatives are already asking about the wedding date.

Generally speaking, getting married about one year after engagement is the time for the woman to prepare a dowry. Even civilians with little money have almost one year to wait for marriage, and because there may be cancellations of the marriage contract after engagement, maybe the two parties will meet. Some people wake up afterwards and feel that they should not marry each other.

After Philip proposed, he quickly expressed that he wanted to get married as soon as possible. He didn't need money or people. If she wanted to make a dowry, if 10 people weren't enough, she could use 20 or 30 people. In short, it's best to get married after half a year.The wedding is scheduled for September, neither hot nor cold, and the weather is just right.

It's April and less than 4 months to go.

Relatives privately said that the wedding date was too late, and it was unknown whether it was Philip's idea or Josephine's idea to get married in such a hurry.On the one hand, they contemptuously said that the Robillard family is a poor southern ghost, and the ridiculous southern accent of the Robillard family is really not "noble"; but on the other hand, they have to admit that anyone else would If you want to marry Josephine as soon as possible, a man who is not short of money will have no problem getting married next week.

Emile was very satisfied with the engagement ball organized by Mrs. Talent. The ball was grand and gorgeous, and all the relatives looked like jewels, and their attitudes were very kind and even flattering.Philip was almost inseparable from his fiancée, and everyone could see the love in his eyes.

Who could not love her precious daughter?

She thought very proudly.

After the engagement ball, John, Charles, and Philip went to Washington, then the Robillards returned to Savannah, Philip to New Orleans, and Emile and Josephine to New York.

Most of the work to be married is to make clothes. There are many kinds of skirts, such as home skirts, dance skirts, going out skirts, picnic skirts, and banquet skirts. Daily skirts are also divided into morning skirts and afternoon skirts. The general rule is from morning coats to There is less and less fabric on the upper body of the evening ball skirt, and the ball skirt can reveal half of the chest and the entire shoulder.

After marriage, I will definitely live in Boston. The winter in Boston is very cold, it snows every year, and the frost is severe. You need to wear a coat when you go out. You need to make at least a dozen fur coats, leather shoes lined with rabbit fur, hand warmers, rabbit fur or fox fur. There are a lot of muffs and mink warm hats.Rich wives certainly had no chance of walking the streets, getting in and out of private carriages.

The cities of this era are filthy and dirty. The poor can’t afford beef, they can only eat pork. Many poor people raise their own pigs, and the muddy pigs run around on the streets; chicken farmers don’t let the chickens run away. , because it is easy to be caught by others; the horses pulling the cart leave piles of horse manure on the road, so that the road is muddy in rainy days, and inexplicable odors are emitted in summer; the government departments have no awareness of "environmental protection" , cleaners are not enough.

The slums in New York are similar to the slums in Boston, with narrow streets, high population density, most of the children cannot read, and they have to come out to earn money at the age of 5 or 6. It is common to employ child labor in factories and shops. There are many jobs if If you can use children, you will never use adult men, because the wages of child labor are only a quarter or even lower than that of adult men; men complain that women and children take away their job opportunities, but they don’t understand that this is a way for capitalists to save costs inevitable.

In contrast, Paris, which is undergoing major urban reconstruction, appears to be much more civilized and progressive.Paris is now a big construction site. Houses are being demolished everywhere to expand streets. The city government has made great efforts to clean the streets, doubled the jobs, and solved the unemployment problem among Parisian civilians. A street without horse manure and sewage represents a city. degree of civilization.

The island of Manhattan is now a small city, and the most prosperous areas are Wall Street and Broadway. There are few people living in the north of Manhattan Island, there is no Central Park, and there is no Upper East Side, where the rich flock to.The notorious "Fivepoints" is the city's most famous slum and the place where Irish gangsters are stationed. Most of them live in Irish immigrants, just next to Wall Street in the Lower East Side.

The New York Police Department is also next to Wall Street, and most of its duties are to protect Wall Street companies and the wealthy residential areas nearby.

Josephine was shocked when she heard that the Five Points District was near Wall Street. She never thought that the business district and the slums were only a few blocks away, which made her worry about safety for a while.It was only later that she discovered that the New York police could still do something, at least they would be very diligent in protecting the safety of the rich.

Given the money, she can even hire the police to protect her while she's out.

She doesn't like to go out, and the dowry is made so that the tailor goes to her home every day. She still lives in Philip's small New York building. After the engagement, Philip gave this small building to her, and it is now her personal property.If she went out, she would go to the Upper East Side to see the land she bought in New York last time.

The construction of Central Park started in February. It was designed by a professional landscape architect. The New York City government invited public bids to build Central Park into a landscape-style public facility. There are woods, roads and waters. Because of terrain constraints, Central Park is a A long and narrow rectangle, the city government plans to build the east side of Central Park into a residential area, and leave the west side for the university. A series of theaters, museums, and universities will be built on both sides of the park.

The use of the central area of ​​Manhattan Island, which is still a wasteland, is largely due to the Five Points District. The city government is temporarily unable to remove such a big cancer, but it also needs to solve the housing problem of the bosses in the increasingly prosperous Wall Street business district. Near Wall Street The land in the city is limited, and the wealthy areas are all in the west away from the Five Points District. As more and more companies enter Wall Street, the residential areas are very tight and sought-after.

Josephine came to New York last year to see that Central Park hadn't been built yet, so she immediately decided to buy land in the Upper East Side and Upper West Side. In the future, every inch of land here will be very valuable, and it would be a fool not to buy it.

People with vision are already buying land on the Upper East Side and Upper West Side. Philip has also bought several pieces and is looking for an architect to draw up the blueprints.He also gave Josephine a piece of land, asking where she would like to build a house.

Josephine picked a piece of land on the Upper East Side closest to Central Park, on which they will build their future New York residence; she decided to build the other land into high-end apartment buildings with at least 10 floors, one household per floor, In the future, it will be left to the children, one building per person, and no one will make noise.

Emile detested that the Upper East Side was now full of wasteland, saying how could anyone be willing to live here?

Josephine thinks about going to war next year. Except for Western California, which has not been affected, the economies of eastern American states have declined to varying degrees, and New York State is no exception. A municipal project as large as Central Park will definitely be affected. Funding It is very possible to build for 10 years if the shortage is insufficient, so I am not in a hurry. Draw the blueprint first, and stock up a batch of building materials during the war. When the civil war is over, it is hard to say whether the price of building materials will rise, but it will definitely With the huge increase in demand, she can take the opportunity to sell this batch of materials at a low price, and then wait for a few years to ship a large number of building materials before buying them at a low price.

She turned to Philip and asked if the price of construction materials, which are not urgently needed for people's livelihood, would be reduced if there was a war.

"There is a high probability that the price will be reduced. If you exchange canned food, rice, potatoes, and corn for wood, you will probably make a lot of money. The premise is that you have a large inventory. Why did you suddenly think of this?"

"Is it possible to stock up on food?"

"Food is not so good, corn is better, rice needs dry conditions, potatoes will germinate, only cans can be stocked. Do you think there will be a war?"

"Don't you think? This is an election year, and if Lincoln is elected president, what do you think will happen to the congressmen of the Southern states?"

Philip frowned, "I don't want to go to war in my heart. Going to war will definitely affect my income. I'm not an arms dealer, so I don't need to rely on war to make a fortune."

"I don't want to either, but I always have to think about what to do if there is a war."

"You don't need to worry about making money, and you don't need to worry about war. If you are worried about the safety of Mr. and Mrs. Robillard, then get pregnant early so that they will stay until the election is over. .”

This man is really shameless!

She murmured in her heart, thinking that this man has been urging to get married all the time since he got engaged.In fact, there is no need to wait another five months. As long as you have money, you can hire tailors from all over Boston or New York, and you can finish her wedding dress in one month.She's not married for the first time, and there's no need to pretend to be shy about what he said. A man who said "children" seriously isn't shy yet. Why is she so shy?

"I can promise you to have a baby as soon as possible, but it's not up to me. I can definitely have a baby, can you?"

Philip looked at her in surprise, then smiled, "I can prove it to you right now."

"how to prove?"

He kissed her lips sideways, "What do you think?"