The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1878-05-16
Tire Borrowing Nuisance.

The greatest nuisance thatthef farm,
er has to contend with, and one whiel
entails on him a not inconsiderablt
Gle 6ofro9% f nlgsf huiisAAntSse@9 aaga(g G6 aBsJh i
may be a very nice man in many ways
be is socisble, chattys and agreeable
He sends over 20 u place and politely
asks us to loan him our spade. We
do not like to loan him our old, weak
backed affair, so we let him have oul
new one, MI A. promising to return il
the next evening" sure, as we want te
use it the following day. Our plans
are all laid out for work, in which the
spade is to play a prominent part,
and yet there is no spade to be found.
One of the men is dispatched to bring
the missing spade, while u other
hands potter around until this and
other tools are brought back. In the
course of an hour the man returns
minus the spade. not being able to find
either the spade OF, MI. A, the latter
having gone to some remote part OF
his farm to work. We then have to
alter our plans for that days work and
go to work at something else, after los
ing considerable time for the accommo-
dation of Mi. A. The following morn
ing, on going to the shed where we keep
our tools, the spade is found, full OF
dirt and Crime. We start out to work
with it, only to find that some of neigh
bor-A's men have been using it as a
pry and have broken its back. We
swallow the loss as best we can,.and
buy another spade. A nice, new briar
scythe is borrowed to help in clearing
a piece of new ground and get it ready
for the pillow. In the carelessness and
hurry the scythe snathe gets badly
charred in the fires of brush, while the
temper in the blade is entirely de-
stroyed. This is returned, with great
sorrow being expressed that the thing
his happened as it has; but never a word
f9said about replacing it with a new
one. Our clean, sound carriage is bor-
r0wed. It is brought back after sun
down with a bolt or two missing, per-
haps a spoke broken, and the whole
covered with . generous sprinkling of
mud. The horse-rake goes the rounds
of the neighborhood and finds its way
home with one or two teeth broken.
A sharp saw and sharp chisels are bor-
rowed. and the saw is brought into
contact with nails, which does not i'm
prove either the set or the sharpness of
the teeth, while the chisels usually have
several suspicious hicks in them which
plainly show they have baen borrowed.
it is with books, periodicals, etc.
valuable book from our library is Dor
rowed and taken to the borrowers
home, where the children, usually with
unclean hands. thumb over it till it
idoks like anything but its former sell,
while there may be several leaves miss
ing, having been taken to supply tho
place OF less convenient paper. sPeri-
odicals are borrowed, and, il returned
at all, are in a sadly dilapidated condi-
Many, and many vamable book
have we lost BY loaning, while the
broken files of our papers show that
have loaned theli,jt6d. tHappay]
there are q few borrowers who take
gUod care of what they borrow, andItrv
to return it in as good order As thew re-
ceiyed it in default Of which they're
place IT. To such persons we take
pleasure in lending, and always shall.
think our readers have had some
with these nuisances-bor-
lowers-and can testify to what We
la&e written sabove as not being ona
Ehit oyerdrawn, for We could cite many
'ther incidents similar, and, NO doubf 1
'ould they.LFractlcd( Farmer.
The Ears