Richland beacon., 1873-06-21
Curi9SitieS Of Economy.

1T Is quite IN the natural order OF
things that some people should be habit
ually economical and others habitually
eXtravagant. peculiaritics of mental and
moral constitution bring this state of
things about, and these are greatly helped
sometimes by 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 il
even after it ceases to be necessary. With
all these things we are familiar. and so We
do not think of them. But i'm this matter
of saving. as in almost everything else.
eccentricity finds room 10 show itself very
curiouslv sometimes. We once knew a
gentleman whose generosity and utter I'M
seltishneSS ,ed him into many extrava-
gancieS which. even with his considerable
wealth. he could il, afford. There was no
Ostentation in his living, and yet his liv-
ing was enormously expensive. Whatever
his family might possibly enjoy he pro
cured. His house was constantly filed
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 gencr-
oSity; and well they might, for whenever
they were Over-presSed, and needed more
labsrers 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 yet this man had one habit of
economy. There was just one thing
which he carefully saved. and that was
paper. When he wrote a letter, he would
carefully tear off and pat away whatever
remained of the sheet, even when II was
! only strip an inch wide. When he re-
/ ceived Il letter, his first care was 10 save
| whatever blank papci there might he at
/ tached to il. He made no use OF these
! strips. When he wanted to make a
memorandum. or write a brief receipt, he
would begin at the top of fooScap sheet.
though his desk was full of slips varying
in size from half sheet to mere scraps.
! IL was not in him To make any real saving.
! His chronic extravaganza made him take
Il fresh sheet when IA scrap would have
done quite as well. and his one instinct of
economy was fully satisfied by the tear
ing off and boarding of all possible mar
gins.
This mania for saving paper * not an
uncommon one. a celebrated English
author. who was not noted for economy
in any other direction, was :. very mi>cr
in the matter of paper. His manuscript
WAS written So closely that the print rs
could hardly make anything of il, and ii
was written. too. on ali 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
providing him indirectly supply OF good
paper. and so in sending his proofs TO him
they wrapped them in good fOolscap; but
the paper-mi-er thought this altogether
too good TO 0e used, and laid il 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
beeisteak too, but ne will not allow his
serving-inan To order any of the chOicer
cuts for broiling. He thinks it wholly
unwarrantable extravaganza to pay two
cents a pound extra for lOn-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 sys-
tenn. but the notwithstanding is his only
economy.
Enforced economy sometimes becomes
so far chronic rs TO last long after the ne
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
bic 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:
ii is said that he was actually afraid to
take her into society or invite guests TO his
house lest she should mOrtify him by
some manifestation of her stinginess. She
would neither dress herself tOlerably nor
set proper number of dishes on her
table, and her other housekeeping ar
engagements were equally pinched in their
character. The story is commonly told
to her discredit; but when we reflect that
all this stinginess was but the result of
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-
spect to the Lord Chancellor who, i'm the
prosperity which she had helped to bring
TO him, was ashamed of her.-Hearth and
Home.