Resources Chart

  This trait describes your monetary worth or your ability to tap such resources.
Your resources are not totally liquid assists. But you can often sell them to gain money.
Though it may take weeks or even months to do so, depending on how much needs to be sold.

  This trait presumes that the character gets a monthly stipend appropriate to his level of resources. The source of this income must be stated, though as the Well could easily run dry depending on a given chronicle's events.



SMALL SAVINGS : You rent a room at a inn or in someone's house. You may own a horse, but can not afford to stable it. If liquidated, you would have $100 in cash.
Allowance is $10 a month.

MIDDLE CLASS : You own a lean-to or sod house. You may own a horse, and can stable it without much worry.  If liquidated you would have $500 in cash.
Allowance is $20 a month.

LARGE SAVINGS : You own a cabin, and can maintain 2 horses. If liquidated you would have $4,000 in cash. Allowance is $80 a month.

WELL OFF: You own a ranch or perhaps a county manor in fair repair. If liquidated you would have $50,000 in cash. Allowance is $500 a month.

FANTASTICALLY RICH : You are a Millionaire Ina time when a million dollars is all but unimaginable. If you liquidated you would have at least $1,000,000 in cash. Allowance is $5,000 a month.

ne way to look at the value of a half-dollar then is to see what portion of a week's pay it represented.  That, and of course to compare what things cost in general, compared to how much it cost to make the money needed to purchase the thing.

or example, a songsheet as advertised in Spirit of the Time, cost 30 cents. Coffee ("Gillies Old Plantation") cost 25 cents per pound.  After enjoying the coffee,  a guy could get a shave for 10-25 cents, or get a pair of shoes ("Harman's Hand Made Shoes") for $3; a decent hotel room in a modest city could cost $1-2 per night, and a half-barrel of flour would set you back $2.50.    A W + C Scott & Sons double action .45 calibre revolver would put you back $20 (according to the Spirit of the Times) in 1877, while a Remington sporting rifle #1 model (30") would run $30.  A simple-ish hat could cost $3 dollars, but a good hat for the trail would be considerably more, ranging from 5-25 dollars. (See more examples below.)

 ut what did 50 cents mean in terms of a paid salary to a cowboy?  I think it is relatively safe to say that at this time the "average" cowboy made about $30 a month.  Wranglers would pull down $20-$30; top hands, $50-$75, and the trail boss, say about $100.  So, spending a half-dollar would be equal to about a half-day's wages.

 o we can see that if you made $30 a month, spending 50 cents was something.

 ost workers made more than cowboys—farm hands (with board) made $35-$45 a month; store clerks made $45-$95; “superior clerks and bookkeepers” made $100-$150 monthly; “female cooks and servants” received $25-$35; carpenters ($75 and up) and masons ($75+) made more.  Railroad workers building the first Texas railroad actually received a pay decrease from $2.75 to $2.00 a day. They worked 6 days a week from 7am to 6 pm, and were allowed to fish in the Pecos and Rio Grande Rivers with dynamite, “Italians on the one side and Germans on the other.”. (More examples below.)

 Flour, half barrel - $2.50

 Piano (7 octave, German, 1870) - $180-$300

 Hotel Rooms, midwest town - $1-$2

 Shave (Midwest) - 10c-25c

 Bicycle Corset - $3

 Shirt, muslin (NY, 1877) $2

 Dinner knives (NY, 1881) $3/dozen

 Detergent (NY, 1877, “saves time and drudgery”) $.10

 Dinner set ( 100 pieces, porcelain) $12

 Fork (special for children) $2

 Fruit, Wine and Jelly Press  $3

 Cookie Cutter $.15

 Linoleum  “A” quality, laid $.80/yd

 Cashmere pants  $3

 Music Box ( Playing 1-66 tunes) $5-$600

 Song Sheet  $.40

 Stereoscopic Pictures  $.150/doz





 Good pair of cowboy boots $25

 Good saddle $25-$75

 Good cowboy hat $10-$20

 Remington Sporting Rifle #1 Model, $30 (*$50 all included)
*back holster & box of amo
 W&C Scott & Sons 45 calibre double action $20 (*$50 all included)
*belt holster & box of amo




 Dental, extraction  $.25

 Dental, silver fillings $.50 (gold, $1.00)

 Dental “teeth extracted free when ordering plate”) $5

 Nonprescription drug “Dr. Hunter’s Botanic Cardinal, restores youth in one week” $1

 Nonprescription drug, “Dr. Van Holm Perfezione, develops and enlarges all parts of the body” $1

 Nonprescription drug “Dr. Melvin Capicum Porous Plaster, the greatest medical discovery since the discovery of man, or since the commencement of the Christian era”

 Dr. Kilmers female Remedy “if yiou have chronic weakness, bearing down, or perversions incident to life change” $1

 Dr. William’s Pink Pills for Pale People, “Miraculous cure” $.50