The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1878-09-05
FEMALE
A Few Sensible Remarks About
Them.

Them.
In the last number of the Rural
| New Yorker" Mrs. A. f. Story has the
following sensible remarks on the fe-
male borrowers, Which many rural
readers will heartily appreciates:
Does it ever enter into the mind OF
the woman who complains OF the Dor
rowing ~propensities Of her nelghDors
that the lenders are themselves In a
great measure responsible for the Dor
rowing Certain it is that borrowers
would soon. ..cease from the land" II
there were no one found to encourage
| the thriftless habit. The habit OF
borrowing grows upon one as habits
generally do, whether good or bad,
and the woman who begins by borrow
ing an occasional drawing of tea, or a
hank of thread, will soon ask you for
your latest magazine. and that before
the leaves are hardly cut, or your best
| table-cloth when she has company
as coolly as though she thought you
must feel it a privilege to lend them.
Her tablecloths are always I'm the
wash at such times. She Is always
forgetting to send to the store for tea,
sugar. starch, and a dozen other things,
and the reason she forgets Is, she
knows YOU have them and will lend
them to her.
If her aunt's cousin is going to be
married and she Is going to n we'd
| ding. she is sure not to have time 10
get ready for SO grand and particular
occasion, and SO you are asked to ran
sack your boxes and drawers for some
thing that will set of her old dress and
make her a fitting guest. She Will
remind you while you doing this that
her complexion and style of features
are peculiar, and that only certain
thingS-which she mentions. and
which she knows you possess-wlll
become her.
You have been years it may be, get
ting the onvenlences of housekeeping
about you, and your neighbor, who
has been too slack or thrlftlesS to do
the same for herself, uses them. She
lets her TUX fall to pieces IN the sun,
and then does her washing in yours.
She runs her candles i'll your moulds.
twists her stocking yarn on the wheel
your grand mother left you, Sits her
pumpkins through your colander, and
grinds her spices in your mill. and
you may coun yourself %rtun If,
when these things are wanted by your
self, you do not have to go after them.
"Plase, ma'am, will you lend ma a
little salve? Tommy has cut his
thumb
Mother would like to borrow "a lit
tie kerosene, if you have it to spare"
PA has famed his back SO he can't
work, and ma wants him to read to
her, could you lend him a paper"
We van to go visiting this after
noon, and would you please let us
take the baby's carriage:'
This is the way you are pestered,
almost daily, if you belong to the great
army of lenders aud are SO unfOrtu-
nate as to live next neighbor to a
chronic borrower. You bear it with a
meek submissiveness that has become
habitual with you, until Mrs. Slack
comes in some day and requests the
loan of our switch, as she is going
West on a visit to her lear mother,
and her hair-which is getting thin
Couldn't have been nearer the color of
yours if it had all grown on one head"
and while she is there and thinks of
it, she will take a fine-tOoth comb if
you nave one handy"
An ominouS flush leaps into your
face at this, and your neighbOr flies
home empty handed, no doubt to call
you the meaneSt woman alive, but she
comes back next morning for your
traveling-bag. and you lend it, thank
full that the woman has a mother out
West, and hoping hat her visit will
be a long one
Now some of the troublesome people
will read this article. They will Dor
row the paper the read it and so sponge
both on the publisher and subscriber
who has paid for it, and unless the
heading should provoke their ire as
suggesting something personal" they
will want co see whether some woman
they know of ''catcheS it."
My dear friend if you are an habitu-
al borrower, this is for you. Dom
you know that the tea you get of your
neighbor is better than what you senC
back. Don't you know that you dom
, always return quite as much as yOl
get? And don't you know, too, tina
it is possible for the neighbor to get
= out of tea while she is waiting for yO,
j.. to pay what you w her. And don
y you sometimes forget to pay it at all
Don't you know that you burn he
- brass kettle every time you have it t.
make up your preserves = and tina
you dull the knives of the sausage
grinder and then fail to sharpen them
Have o never thought what troubl
you cause your neighbor when oblig
her to send to your house for the fla
irons every time she wants to us,
them: And has it never occurred t
you that you are doing her an injury
e, not only In the wearing out of the va
he rious conyeniences which her fore
thought has provided, but in appro
10 priating to your own service tim
which b%elongstO her and to her fam
ly, and to which you have no manne
G, of right: