Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-08-21
CuriOSitieS of Economy.

| OF all who knew her.
Curiosities of Economy.
| IT is quite in the natural order of things
that some people should be 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 by circumstances. People who must
| ecOnOmlZe 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
| curlously sometimes. We once knew a
gentleman whose generosity and utter I'M
selfishness led him to many extrava-
| gancles which, even with his considera-
| 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-
| oslty; 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 lift with his whole farm force. To
| do generous things was a part of him, and
| the cost OF doing them never entered his
mind. He was extravagant simply because
| he could never learn to regard money as of
| any value. And etthis 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 it was a
| 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 a brief receipt, he
would begin at the top Of foolscap sheet,
though his desk was full of slips varying
in size from half a sheet to mere scraps.
| 1t was not in him to make any real saw
| ing. His chronic extravaganza made him
| take fresh sheet when a 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 it. 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
paper, and so in sending his proofs to him
they wrapped them in good foolscap; but
the paper miser thought this altogether
too good to be used, and laid it away
| while he continued to write on unseemly
| 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
| serving-man to order any of the choicel
cuts for broiling. He thinks it a wholly
unwarrantable extravaganza to pay two
cents pound extra for lQin-steaks when
he can get on well enough with those cut
from the round This would seem rea
sonable enough if it were part of a sys
tenn but the beefsteak-saving is his only
economy.
Enforced economy sometimes becomes
f+ar ha
cessity for practicing it has passed away
When Lord Eldon was poor Jack Scott,
and had made a 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
mass. and the habit thus acquired stuck tC
her even after her husband had become
Lord High Chancellor with an income
mucb greater than he knew how to use
and # IS said that he was actually afraid
TO take her into society or to invite guests
TO his house lest she should mortity him
nv some manifestation of her stinginess
She would neither dress herself tolerably
/ nor set a proper number of dishes on hel
table and her other housekeeping ar
rancements were equally plnched IN then
character. The story is commonly tolo
to her discredit; but when we reflect tha
all this stinginess was but the result O.
her brave and loyal fight for her husband:
success in the world, we bow our heads
in recognition of her nobility far more
heartily than we render our tribute of re
snect to the Lord Chancellor who, in the
prosperity which she had helped t.
hiring to him,was ashamed of her.-Heartl
and Home.
SIXTEEN years ago, North Carolin;
father. who knew the virtues OF the ROD
thrashed his big boy, and sent him out t.
hoe corn. The first seen OF him sine
was recently, when ne returned rom Ca!l
tornia with $4,000 On MS hoe. III
! moral is obvious.