The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1880-01-01
Handy Husbands.

is generally Offset by the query of how
much raw material his wife throws out
of the pantry window, and neither
question, answer them as you may, has
more than an indirect bearing on the
prosperity of the family. Fifty cents
out of husbands pocket weekly is
only $26 dollars at the end of the year,
and the waste in the kitchen cannot be
much more. The loss of fifty dollars
per year by slow degrees is not enough
to justify family council around the
CRATE to discuss the question: "Why
don't we get along better?'
There may be reasons which the
family will never entertain, and which
they could not Offset if they desired.
Take the case of almost any moderately
well-off family in Detroit and you will
be pretty sure to find that both hus-
band and wife are what may be termed
handy folks. The gates are all in order,
the doors never sag, the fences are in
fine repair, and the whole place has an
air of neatness and order. Nature was
kind to that man. She gave him a
handy twist of the wrist. You'll find
that he has workshop somewhere
about the house or barn. Years ago he
bought him saws, planes, chisels,
square, compass, and other handy tools.
and there isn't hardly day in the week
he doesn't use them. If gate-hinge
breaks he repairs damages at once, and
saves the cost of two hinges. If door
settles, off it comes and the plane takes
off shaving from top or bottom. If
caster is loose on bedstead or bureau he
has gimlet and screws. If single
blows from the roof he has nails and
hammer. Added to his store of tools is
a pot of paint, and brushful here and
there keeps things tidy. A handy hus-
band will put up hooks and shelves,
take off gas burner and clean it, lay
carpet, plaster up hole in the kitchen
wall, box the water-pipes, paint the
steps, put lock on the door, varnish
chair, repair a clothes-horse, or do any
other odd needed job.
How much do you suppose this load
of stuff cost me?" asked secondhand
dealer of citizen the other day.
The " STUFF included a lounge which
could have been covered with chintz
for forty cents, two broken clothes
horses, q washstand with the casters
of, q kitchen table with leaf split, a
set of bed-springs with slat broken,
and various other things needing the
attention of handy man. They cost,
when new, all of a hundred dollars. A
handy man would have made every
thing fit for use at cost of two dollars,
and yet the dealer paid only four dol
lars for the lot.
A carpenter will not go to a house
and put in q new sash-cord in win
dow-sash, put new lock on door.
drive six nails into the back steps, or
put up shelf short of fifty cents, and
he will generally demand a dollar. A
handy man can save this bill. A tim
ner will not 80 to house and set up
stove for less than a dollar. A handy
man saves this dollar. Wallpaper
costing forty cents per roll gives pa
per-hanger twenty cents per roll for his
work. A handy husband soon learns to
paper any room outside of parlor. A
painter will charge twelve shillings to
put one coat on a pair of front steps. A
handy man will do the work at cost
of forty cents for material. A glazier
will not leave the shop to replace a
broken pane of glass for less than fifty
cents. A handy man has putty and
knife in his workshop. 1t is almost
every day that you hear some one say:
"t've got to stop and send up
carpenter and painter. I've got about
fifty odd jobs around the house which
ought to have been done long ago."
When the men get through they have
bill of twenty or twenty-five dollars,
or more, and yet have done nothing
which handy man could not have done
at odd moments. 1t is not two weeks
since that man sent mile for lock-
smith to see what allied the lock on one
of his doors, as he could not get the key
into it. The locksmith came. swung
the door open, and charged one dollar
for pulling out q trunk key which
child had Inserted on the other side-
Detroit Free Press.