The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1880-04-09
PARSIMONIOUS PEOPLE.

anu IIe evidence OF various parties taken.
PARSIMONIOUS PEOPLE.
1t is duty of every one to be thrifty; but
it should be kept in mind there is a difference
between thrift and mean parsimony. Some
people who are at ease in their circumstances
make themselves ridiculous by shabby at
tempts at saving. We once knew an old
Scotch lady who, though she had a consider
able sum of money left her, was parsimoni-
GUS to an extraordinary extent. As she
grew old, she grew more misery, until she
would not allow herself milk for her tea OF
meat for dinner. Bent double with rheuma-
tism in her old age, she would not pay any
one to wash or clean her house, but with in
finite labor accomplished these tasks for her
self. She never would send for a doctor, for
she pithily remarked, They cost a power O.
siller, and did no good" On bitter winter
days we often found her shivering over
single handful of fire; a small piece of hard
cheese and a cup of tea with mouldy bread
her only dinner. When she died, she left
about eight hundred pounds, besides various
moneys in silver, copper, and bank-notes,
which she had stuffed into drawers and va
rious secret recesses. All her money went
to a couple of nephews, who never paid her
the least respect, and who even CrudgeG the
/ necessary outlay for her funeral.
An Old clergyman of very mean habits got
married when far advanced in life, to the
great surprise of all his acquaintances who
wondered at such an act of extravaganza.
Upon inquiry, however, it was found that he
had married entirely from motives of ecOnO-
my. The lady Of his choice was the widow
/ of a respectable school master, who after her
husbands decease was in the habit of lend
/ ing him the clothes of the defunct; so, think
+ ing that marriage would put him in the re-
/ mainder of the said garments, he proposed,
/ and was accepted. His stipend was, with
! glebe and other things, about two hundred
pounds per annum, yet by dint of sheer mig
/ gardliness he died leaving many thousands.
He made point of picking up and taking
home anything he could find-a piece of
/ coal fallen from a passing cart. an old lucifeT
match box, pieces Of stick from a neiChbor
ing wood-anything to save outlay in his
own house. He never wrote on a sheet of
paper, always using blank pages Of other
peoples letters, and turned all envelopes
outside in, so as to make them available for
of turned envelopes, gummed together in a
( very ingenious way, was found. On one
occasion he gave a dinner, which consisted
of a sleeps head minus the trotters, which
were to be kept for next days dinner.
There was a Thomas Pett who died in
/ CIfford's Passage, London, in 1903 He was
a native of Warwickshire. He came to Lon
don at the age of ten, with one shilling in
his pocket. As he had no friends or TrelatiOns
in the city, he was indebted to the kindness
of an old woman who sold pies for a morsel
of bread till he could procure himself en-
ployment. Some time after, he was engaged
as errand-boy by a tallowchandler, Mrs.
/ Dip-the chambers wife-being "a lady of
London mould, could not endure his rustic
manners and awkward gait so she sent him
off one bitter winters night, with the remark,
''Your master hired you in nly absence, and
I'H turn YOU of in his" The good husband
did not desert Tom, however; he found him
out, and sent him as apprentice to butcher
in Southwark. For the first five years he
had twenty-five pounds year and meat and
drink The accumulation of money and the
abridgment of expense were the two sole
objects of his thoughts. His expenses were
, reduced to three heads-lodging, clothing
and washing. For the first he fixed on
back room on the second floor, with one win
/ dow, that occasionally admitted a stray sun
beam. OF his dress every article was sec
ond- d-hand. Nor was he choice in the color o.
: quality, sagely observing, when he was teas
ed about his garb, that according TO Solomon
= there was nothing new under the sun, ant
1 that as to color, it was mere matter of fan
e cy Concerning washing, he said that II,
I man deserved a clean shirt who could no
v wash it himself and that the only fault n
e had to find with Lord North was the duty h
5 imposed upon soap. There was one expense
, however, that weighed heavily on his mind
o and often robbed him Of a nights rest, an
e that was shaving He often lamented tha
T he had never learned to shave himself. II
used to console himself under this Athletic
2 by hoping that one day boards would becom
l. fashionable. He made a promise to himse
e that as soon as he had amassed a thousan
: pounds, he would treat himself to pint
!. porter every Saturday. Fortune soon put
s in his power to perform this promise, and !
e continued to treat himself till the additions
/ duty was laid on porter he then reduce
Il his portion to half a pint once q week. If
D, heard of an auction anywhere near, he ra
e quickly and begged a catalogue, as if an
T ious to buy, and after he had collected
al number of these he sold them for waste-p
st per. When he heard an accidental rum
is that the bank in which his money was hi
re failed, lie shook from head to foot, and to,
ID his bed, refusing to eat until he was assure
er that all was right. He was never know
ht even in the depth of the coolest winter,
is light fire in his room or go to bed by ca
IN die light. lie loved good cheer-at the CO
" of another every man, said he, ''shou
so eat when he can; an empty sack cam
Id stand" Once on a time he was prompted
e. the demon Of extravaganza to purchase
re whole pint of small beer but after buyi
it, was so overcome by remoTse that he lock
a it in his closet then threw the key out of