The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1876-01-06
The Way AstOrs are Made.


A Munson street man being told that
there were several pieces of tin which
needed mending, conceived the idea of
getting an iron and solder and doing the
mending himself. His wife, filled with
vague forebodings perhaps, said that the
expense was such trifle that it would
hardly pay to do it oneself, to which he
responded:
"Pll admit that in this one instance
it would not pay, but there is something
being in want of repair every little while,
and If have the. tools here for fixing it
we are saved just SO much expense right
along. 1t may not be much in the course
of year, but every little helps and in
time the total would amount to a nice
little lump. We don't want the Astors
Juggling off all the money in the country,
by gracious
He got the iron-one dollar-and fifty
cents worth of solder, and ten cents
worth of rOsin. He came home with
these things and went into the kitchen.
looking so proud and happy that his wife
would have been glad he got them, were
it not for an overpowering dread of an
impending muss. He called for the ar
ticles needing repair. His wife brought
out a pan.
where's the rest? Bring 'em all out
an let me make job of 'em while Pm
about it."
He got them all, and seemed to be dis
appointed that there were not more of
them. He pushed the iron into the fire,
got milk pan inverted on his knee, and
with the solder in his hand, waited for
the right heat.
"That iron only cost dollar, and it'll
never wear out. and there is enough solder
i'm this piece to do twenty-five dollars
worth of mending," he explained to his
wife.
Pretty soon the iron was at the right
heat, he judged. He rubbed the rosin
about the hole which was to be repaired,
held the stick of solder over it, and
carefully applied the iron. 1t was an in
tensely interesting moment. His wife
watched him with feverish interest He
said, speaking laboriously, as he applied
the iron:
"The only thing regret about it is
that didn't think about this before
we"
Then assembled through that ceiling
and up into the very vault of heaven the
awfulest yell that woman ever heard,
and the same moment the soldering iron
few over the stove, the pan went clat-
tering over the fosr, aud the bar of
solder struck the wall with such force as
to smash right through both the plaster
and lath. And before her borrified gaze
danced her husband in an ecstasy of
agony, sobbing, screaming, and holding
on to his left leg as desperately as if it
were solid gold and studded with dia-
monds.
"Get the camphor, why don't you p
he yelled. "Send for the doctor! Oh,
oh, I'm dead man p he shouted.
Just then his gaze rested on the solder
ing iron. In an instant he caught it up
and hurled it through the window,
without the preliminary Of raising the
sash. 49,
TWAS some time before the thoroughly
frightened and confused woman learned
that some Of the molten solder had run
through the hole in the pan and onto his
leg, although she knew from the first
that something of an unusual nature had
occurred. She didn't send for the doc
tor. She made and applied the poultices
herself to save expenses. She said:
eve don't want the Astors Juggling
off all the money in the country, by gre-
cious." .c-f - n
,"Come, Maria, don't you be too cum
ming" he sheepishly expostulated.