Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1861-02-28
A GOLD WATCH In A RAG BAG.
ATrue story.

fortunes do not always bring from grea'
investments of ten-thousand dollor capi,
tails. Small savings are oftentimes the
germs of wealth and independence-cen1
npon cont, half-dime upon halfdime, and
dollar upon dollar-these are the founda-
tions that most frequently uphold golden
structures. Never suffer yourself to say,
at Is only cent or two-not worth sa.
wing" Only cent or two! Put it back
into your pocket-keep it there, and it will
be great deal easier for you to say "No'
to yourself when the impulse comes to
squander dollar or two or even a hun
dred dollars or two.
Not even pin.-not even stray piece
of twine-not even scrap of white cloth
is too worthless to save. You will never
grow rich by piling money together, as
long as you do not understand the practic-
al meaning of the good old proverb
"Waste not, want not"
Perhaps little anecdote-a simple re-
lation of facts that really happened-may
serve to illustrate our subject, better than
aught else.
A lady in the vicinity of Bridgeport,
Conn, was in the habit of putting out
shirts to make, for a fine large clothing es-
tablishment. TO number of women in the
neighborhood. In the cutting of these,
there were great many little odds and
ends of cloth left over-pieces to small to
be of use, and the first thought was, of
course, TO toss them into the fire. NO."
she reflected; will save them as they ac-
cumulate, and perhaps may get enough
Of them to exchange with the tinman for
some kitchen article or other. So she left
lhsm lie house wifc-like, and in few weeks
there was quite pile.
One day neighbor came and on hear
ing the destination of the scraps, advised
that they should be sent to paper mill at
some little distance. "They will give you
three or four cents pound for them," said
be, "and that is better than exchanging
them for tin."
She asked her husbands advice. To
him few rags more or less seemed as a
trivial affair.
ado as you like" said he, laughingly,
"YoU may have all the money you can
make out of the ragsp'
She took him at his word, and in two
or three months some half-dozen barrels
of rags were sent by some one who was
going in the direction of the paper-mill.-
To her surprise and pleasure, new, rust
ling five-dollas bill came back.
Again the impulse to spend it for some
little ornament was checked. "No." she
resolved, "all my rag money shall go into
the Savings Bank
And into the Sa7ings' Bank it went ac-
cordinly. Years rolled by-more rags
were saved and sold-intercst and princi
pal accumulated. At length an unsual
opportunity presented itself for the pur-
chase of beautiful gold watch. Forty
dollars was the price.
81 will not ask my husband to with
draw any cessaryfunds from his bust
ness" she thought, "but now is the time
to make my ragmoney useful!'
The gold watch was purchased-liter-
ally with rags. We Will not pause to
chronicle the envy and astonishment of
those ladies of the vicinity to whom
gold watch was unattainable as the Ko-
hinoor diamond, yet we thought it was
hardly worth while TO save the clippings
from their work tables!
Yet this was not the end of it. The
bank fund of which the bundle of rags
were the origin, now amounts to over twen
ty. .fve hundred dollarsi
81 do not know how it has accumula
ted" said the lady to US. "a few cut
tings and scraps laid aside whenever l cut
out shirt-a few dollars carried 10 the
bank when went to the city-a little
interest added on from time to time-it
has grown up, almost without thought or
care on my part"
Reader! is not this example worth fol-
lowing? Our moral is a simple one-save
the trlfies, if you would be rich