Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1879-03-27
The fart1 aud fireside.
GUMPTION.

GUMPTION.
Not high sounding word, perhaps, but
very expressive one, is Gumption. A man
had better be born with good stock of gump-
tion in his Uranium, than with any amount
of money in his (prospective) trousers pocket.
Many a man has let fortune slip through
his fingers for the want of it, and many wo-
man who might have clothed herself in pur-
pie and fine linen has been content to wear
six-penny calico for the same lack.
Gumption in the small, everyday affairs
of life is more than any other quality-the
one thing needful. Webster makes this word
to mean: capacity, shrewdness, address. 1t
is all this and more. What word have we
that can quite express its full meaning?
If we see man drawing out manure on
stone-boat, or wheeling it on barrow, or
damming muddy brook to wash his sheep
in, instead of driving them half a mile to the
river, or lifting heavy barrels into wagon
instead of rolling them in, or cleaning his field
of stones by carrying them off in his hat, or
moving the thistles in his pasture after they
have gone to seed, or letting his moving ma
chine stand out in the weather, while his
home made contrivance for marking out even
ground stands under cover, or cutting off
cows tail to cure her of hollow horn, we are
apt to say he is lacking in common sense, but
it is only gumption he lacks.
A woman lacks it when she plants small
flower seeds in the same way as her husband
does MELONS and corn; when she tears her
dresses into rags for her new carpet, because
they are "just the color she wants." when she
spends all her spare time piecing bed quilts
and lets her children run the streets, dirty and
untaught; when she cans fruit in cracked
Jars and expects it to keep; when she lets her
husband 20 abroad in patched overalls and
collarless shirts, and then wonders he don't
get into the legislature when she tricks her
daughter up to "catch beau" before she is
fairly in her teens when she "talks" to her
neighbors about her husband, and then cant
understand why he is slightingly spok ken of;
when she allows her sons to call their father
the "old man" and then is ready to cry her
eyes out because they call her the "old wo'
man; )" when she keeps her children's stom-
achs stuffed with rich cake, pies and pudding,
and then sends them to bed at night with their
faces done up in lemon juice, to make their
compilations clear when she discards lover
because he has wart on his nose and mar
ries dandy with nose the color of beet
Some people 20 through life without being
able to do anything they undertake, except in
the clumsiest manner, and yet they have seen
the work done as it should be, hundred
times. These have more gumption, however,
than another class who never attempt thing
that demands the least taste or skill, because
they are sure beforehand that they "never
could do it."
"Dear me!' sighs one lady, "If I didn't
have to hire so much sewing done for the men
folks, l might afford something for myself
now and then"
"What is it now?"
"Overalls"
"Why not make them yourself? You have
time and machine"
"Oh, I never could. tried it once, and
when John came to put them on he couldn't
wear them, because I'd sewed the fronts to-
gether for one leg and the backs for the other"
Another lady wants to 60 on an excursion
"dresdfully,", but cannot afford it.
Elk the hat you are going to take to the
milliner's yourself 1t wants nothing but
what you can do"
81 wouldn't dare undertake it for the world.
I should ruin it.
"Then make over your dress and save the
dressmaker's bill"
"Oh, you could do it, dare say; but
can't. If ripped it to pieces, should never
be able to get it together again"
One of the worst things about women of
this sort is, that they are forever blaming
some one else for what they are to blame
themselves. Do they want to get along and
up in the world-and often they are ambi.
tious in this respectfully are not slow to see
that somebody doesn't manage right, but new
er think of taking the blame to themselves.
They haven't gumption enough for even that
Rural New Yorker.
DONG UP MEMS L1NEN.-A husband
complained that his shirt bosom and collars
were badly done up, and the case was referred
to knowing shirt-maker, and his answer was
we'll worthy the attention of house keepers:
"Yes" said the man, "the fault is. with
your laundress. While doing up your col
lars, she stretches them the wrong way.
Damp linen is very pliable, and a good
pull will alter fourteen-inch into fifteen
inch collar in the twinkling of an eye. She
ought to stretch them crosswise, and not
lengthwise. Then in Strengthening out your
shirt bosom she makes another mistake of
the same sort. They also ought to be pulled
crosswise instead of lcngthwise, particularly
in the neighborhood of the neck. A length
wise pull will draw the front of the neckband
somewhat under your chin. where it was
never meant to 60, and of course it spoils the
set of your collar. With the front of your
neckband an inch too high, and your collar
an inch too long, you have most undesirable
combination"
The necessary changes we're made in the