Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1873-08-21
CuriOsities OF Economy.

the under-sea.
CuriOsities Of Economy.
Iris quite in the natural order of things
that some people should he habitually
economical and others habitually extrava.
giant Pecularities of mental and moral
constitution bring this state of things
about, and these are greatly helped some
times bv circumstances. People who must
economic learn to do it whether their
tendencies are in that direction or not
and people whose early training has
taught them thrift are apt to practice it even
after it ceases to be necessary. With all
these things we are familiar, and so we
do not think of them. But in this matter
of saving, as in almost everything else, &C.
centricity finds room to show itself very
curiously sometimes. We once knew
gentleman whose generosity and utter UNI
selfshness led him TO many eXtrava-
gancles which, even with his consldera-
bic wealth, he could i'll afford. There
was no ostentation in his living, and YET
his living was enormously expensive
Whatever his family might posi-
bly, enjoy he procured. His house
was constantly filled with relatives
poorer than he. The church to which
he belonged drew nearly half its
revenue from his purse. His poor neigh
bors thought him very prince of gener-
osity; and well they might, for whenever
they were over-pressed, and needed more
laborers than they could afford to hire, he
was sure TO discover the fact, and to give
them a lift with his whole farm force. To
do generous things was part OF him, and
the cost of doing them never entered his
mind He was eXtrayagant simply because
| he could never learn to regard money as OF
any value And yet this man had one habit
| of economy. There was just one thing
which he carefully saved, and that was
paper. When he wrote letter, he would
| carefully tear off and put away whatever
remained of the sheet, even when 1t was
strip only an inch wide. When he re-
ceived letter, his first care was to save
whatever blank paper there might be at
| tached TO it. He made no use OF these
strips. When he wanted to make mem
| orandum, or write brief receipt, he
would begin at the top of foolscap sheet,
| though his desk was full of slips varying
| i'm size from half sheet TO mere scraps.
| 1t was not in him to make any real saw
! ing His chronic extravaganza made him
| take fresh sheet when scrap would
| have done quite as well, and his one in
stinct of economy was fully satisfied by
the tearing off and boarding of all posi-
| bic margins.
This mania for saving paper is not an
uncommon one A celebrated English
| author, who was not noted for economy
| in any other direction, was very miser
| in the matter of paper. His manuscript
was written so closely that the printers
could hardly make anything of 1t, and it
| was written, too, on all sorts OF scraps
| Margins Of newspapers, old wrappers, the
| brown paper in which his shopman sent
| home parcels, all these served him for
| writing paper. His printers thought to
| secure more agreeable manuscript by pro
| viding him indirectly supply of good
| they wrapped them in good tOolscap; but
| the paper.miser thought this altogether
too good TO be used, and laid it away,
| while he continued to write on unsccmly
scraps.
But paper is not the only thing priced
| by special economists of this kind. We
know wealthy man whose table is al
ways abundantly supplied with the best
| of everything with the solitary exception
| of beefsteaks. He is especially fond of
beefsteak too, but he will not allow his
scrving.man to order any Of the cboicer
cuts for broiling. He thinks it wholly
unwarrantable extravaganza to pay two
cents a pound extra for loin-stcaks when
| he can get on well enough with those cut
| from the round This would seem rea-
sonable enough if it were part OF sys-
tenn, but the beefsteak- saving. is his only
economy.
| Enforced economy sometimes becomes
so far chronic as TO last long after the ne.
cessity for practicing it has passed away
| When Lord Eldon was poor Jack Scott,
and had made runaway marriage with
! no money in hand or in prospect, his no.
BILE wife pinched and screwed their joint
| expenses into the smallest possible COM
| pass, and the habit thus acquired stuck TO
| her even after her husband had become
| Lord High Chancellor with an income
much greater than he knew how to use I;
and 1t is said that he was actually afraid
| to take her into society or to invite guests
| to his house lest she should mortify him
by some manifestation of her stinginess.
| She would neither dress herself tolcrably
| nor set a proper number of dishes on her
| table, and her other housekeeping ar
rangements were equally pinched In their
! character. The story is commonly told
| to her discredit; but when we reflect that
| all this stiEginess was but the result Of
her brave and loyal fight for her husbands
success in the world, we bow our heads
! in recognition of her nobility far more
heartily than we render our tribute of re-
spect to the Lord Chancellor who, in the
prosperity which she had helped to
bring to him,was ashamed of her.-Hsarth
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