New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1878-05-29
The Borrowing Nuisance.

The greatest nuisance that the farmer
has to contend with, and one which entails
on him not incousiderable amount Of
loss, in time and cash, is the borrowing
nuisance. Neighbor A may be a very nice
man in many ways; he is sociable, chatty
and agreeable. He sends over to our place
and politely asks US to lone him our spade.
We do not like to lone him our old, weak
backed affair, so we let him have our new
one, Mr.. A promising to return it the next
evening, sure, as we want to use it the fol-
lowing day. Our plans are all laid out
for work, in which the spade is to play
prominent part, and yet there is no spade
to be found. One of the men is dispath-
ed to bring the missing shade, while our
other hands potter around until this nnG
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 or Mr.. 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 losing considerable time for the
accommodation of Mr.. A. The following
morning, 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 neighbor
AS men have been using it as 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 piece Of new ground
and get it ready for the pillow. In the
carelessness and hurry the scythe snatbe
gets badly charred in the fires of brush,
while the temper in the blade is entirely
destroyed. This is returned, with great
sorrow being expressed that the thing has
happened as it has; bat never word
about replacing it with new one. Our
clean sound carnage is borrowea. 1t is
brought back after sundovn with bolt
or two missing, perhaps q spoke broken,
and the whole covered with generous
sprinkling of mud. The horse-rake goes
the o,nds Of the neigh 5orhood and finds
its way home with one or two teeth broken.
A sharp saw and sharp chisels are borrow
ed, and the saw is broug hit into contact
with nails, which does not improve either
the set or the sharpness Of the teeth, while
the chisels usually have several suspicious
hicks in them which plainly show they
have been borrowed. As with the tools
and implements, so it is with books, peri
odicals, etc. A valuable book from our
library is borrowed and taken to the bor-
rower's home, where the children, usually
with unclean hands, thumb over it till it
looks like anything but its former self,
while there may be several leaves missing,
having been taken to supply the place Of
less convenient paper. Periodicals are
borrowed, and. if returned at all, are in
sadly dilapidated condition. Many and
many valuable. book have we lost by
loaning, while the broken files Of our pa
pers show that we have loaned them. too.
Happily there are few borrowers who
take good care Of what they borrow. and
try to return it IN as good order as the
received it, in default of which they re-
place it. To such persons we take pleas
ure in lending, and always shall. We
think our readers have had some exner;-
ence with these nuisances borrowers
and can testify to what we nave written
above as not being one whit overdrawn n.
for We could cite MANY other incident
similar, and, no doubt. could they.-pyac-,
lical Farmer.