, 1841-11-27

rons but Misses will find a very useful lesson
in the following narrative. sit only costs
half a dollar" has ruined many. Young
men, too, who are in the daily habit of pur
chasing this, that, and the other thing, because
Of the small pittance Of cost, may receive .
useful aiat, at least. FraskDn's rule fanc
all will admit that he wa a philosopher ane
a wise many was, never to purchase any ar
ticle he did not really need, merely becaus
the article was cheap. If this rule was more
generally adopted. some peoples store bills
would not be as large as they are now, and
the Sheriff would be deprived Of many a fa'
job. But we will not speculate-read the
following narr ton:
ssOnIy half a dOllar.o
We dined with our friend Tomson the
other day. 1t was the first time we had been
to see him since he quit his large house in
Walnut street and moved to his present
small one. Every thing looked comfortable
enough about his new dwelling, except Mrs.
Tomson, and she declared there was not
room to turn round in such a little hole
Tomson however has borne his reverses with
admirable for'itude and good humor, consider.
ing how immensely rich he was, or was sup
posed to be, which is the same thing, a few
years ago. Misery loves company. 1t is
one thing TO fail or curtail nowadays, when
nearly all ones n~eighbors are doing the same
thing; but it was quite another thing four
years AGO, when all the world rode a high
horse. To return to our friend Tomson,-
his lands. his loans, and his stocks, have tur-
ned out TO have no more substance than the
lather of Glenn's Saponaceous Compound
His fourteen sections in Indiana and Illinois
are from some cause or other,-remoteness
from a market, prevalence of milk sickness
in the neighborhood, or something Of that
kind-worth less than the original govern
ment price. The Hng-a,m mug and Derry
Down Rail Road Loan. and the stock of the
Flipflat Bank. in which he was interested 10
the amount of for,y-eght thousand dollars,
are now quoted so low that he considers
them worth little or nothing.
But rs Tumson remarked when he sat
down to dinner, "every thinghas so deprecia-
ted in value that no man can tell what he is
WORTH" and so we place no positive estimate
upon his property. We have said that his
ha,,o - o1n,Cor,,bJo o,l ~ - - H. bo.
persuaded Mrs. Tomson to part with a few
Of the most splendid articles of her furniture,
purchased within the last five years, because
Mrs. r. has the good taste to see that they
do not become her present contracted estab-
lishment. As we were dining,the conversation
was partly about the change in Tomson's
stvIe of living. We have always been very
intimate. and he tell US all about his affairs:
slave told Mrs. Tomson," said he in
the course of the talk, sat least one hundred
times within the last month that | find our
expenditures must not exceed two thousand
five hundred dollars.'' 81 will vouch for
your having said so a thousand times" rejoi-
ned our hostess. 81 hear nothing but re-
trenchment, economy and reform! The
cry is as loud and frequent in this house as
used to be among the Harrison men before
the election" Then Mrs. T. addressed her.
self to us particuIarly-"Whv, sir, would you
believe it, ( asked Mr.. Tomson TO order a
quart of ice-cream. He knew you would
dine with us-but not would cost eighty
seven and a half cents-and so he must
economic, and now we have no ice.creamr!'
After the delivery of this speech. Tom
son took out his pocket and made a memo
randum in it.
The conversation turned. We remarked
that the streets had not looked very nice
recently, and ventured to suggest that the
new city administration had not yet got
warm enough in their places TO take a peep
out of the windows and see in what a dirty
condition are the t~horoughfares. To this
remark Mrs. Tomson assented, and added
that for her part she regretted nothing so
much as the giving up of her carriage. SIN
deed" she added, 81 hate cabs, but this NOR
ming ] was out shopping, and the streets
were so uncleanly, that ! got into cab in Sc