South-eastern Independent. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1871-1871, 1871-07-07
Turning Everything to Account.

NEITHER large salaries nor extensive
facilities for making money ensure a COM
petence for man. What ones future ma
terial condition will be, depends not so
much upon what he receives as upon what
he saves. Generally speaking, the differ
ence between the individual who becomes
independent and the one remaining de-
pendent all his life, represents that diff
ference between careful saving and reckless
spending.
Some become rich on what others throw
away. During the last century, a poor
emigrant and his wife who had landed in
New York, finding nothing else to do, be-
gan to gather cigar stumps about the
streets and bar rooms, and manufactured
them into snuff. They were industrious,
prospered, and laid the foundation for what
is now one of the largest tobacco houses
in the world. The gardener enriches his
soil with the dressing given away by the
improvident neighbor. The Celt fattens
his COW and hog on the slops thrown out
at back doors; and many chiffoniers. in
large cities, fish out snug little fortunes
from waste barrels and cutters. There is
scarcely anything in the house that can
not be turned to account sooner or later,
no matter how valueless it may appear at
the moment.
There is no waste in Natures laboratory.
In the numberless transformations and
combination of things, material and i'm
material, nothing is lost or laid aside as
valueless. By how much man initiates
Nature in this respect, by so much he IN
creases his worldly substance. Corpora
tiOns and companies amass fortunes,
through the application of genius and in
ventive talent to what is looked upon as
refuse and of no account. An article of
commerce is now made from the water
employed in gas works. Sawdust, which
was once cast into streams, blocking up
their channels, is now extensively used in
manufacturing oxalic and formic acids,
paper, gun-cotton, volatile oils, and blast
ing powder. 1t has proved highly service
sble in curing hams, polishing jewelry,
cleaning fIrs, and for a variety of other
purposes. Ivory dust, iron filings, sea-
weed, coal dust, and bones, which were
once cast away, are turned to good uses.
1t is now proposed to utilize the Stag ofiron
furnaces for block payements. The dead
body of horse, which owners were for
merly in such a hurry to put out of sight,
is now converted into vast number of uses.
The name and tail, says contemporary,
are serviceable for hsir-cloth, sieves, bow
strings, and brushes. ''The skin is converted
into leather for cart harness, for boots and
shoes, and strong collars. The hOofs are
used for combs, homework, glue, and in old
times were the chief source of hartshorn,
now obtained from the gas-house. The
flesh is boiled down in the rendering vat,
and much oil and fat is obtained from it
The stomach and intestines make valuable
strings and cords for musical instruments.
Out of the bones are manufactured but
tons, toys, tweezers, knife handles, rules,
cups, dominoes, balls; and the residue
from all these things is burnt into bone
black, to be used by the sugar refner, who
puts in a second claim on the dead horse;
and some parts of the bone-black IS burn
ed white, to be used by the assayer in test
ing gold and when the assayer and retin-
er have finished with it, it is converted
into superphosphate 20 serve as a valuable
manure on our land. The teeth are used
as substitutes for ivory. Some portion OF
the bone black is converted into phos-
phorus for the manufacture of matches,
and lately valuable bread preparation is
made of the phosphate, and medicines are
prepared for the cure of consumptives."
Ingenuity and economy of this character
have but to be exercised in our household
affairs in order to ensure a competence,
however limited may be our Incomes
Hearth and Home.