The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-01-27
Borrowing and Lending Tools 2

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Borrowing and Lending TOOls.yp.i
About twenty years ago thrifty farm.
er from New England removed to "a
] Western State where he had made him a
! splendid home, Not long since the
writer was making him visit when one
of his neighbors called in toiborrow a
hand-saw.' The old gentleman, got him
l the saw, when, the. borrower remarked
that it, was awful dull, and he did not
know as he. could do anything with it.
When he had departed the old man took
a seat near his visitor and squared him
self for q talk. Said he, II want to
tell you something. When lived East
the neighborhOod in which | lived used
to make a practice Of borrowing and
lending tools If a borrowed tool was
broken or lost it was either repaired or
replaced with new one, We, rarely
had any trouble about tools. Sometimes
a borrower would neglect to return a
tool, and when the lender wanted to use
it he must go or send after it. He would
feel little sour at first, but after the
borrower had apologized handsomely,
and they had drank a glass or two Of
good cider, and discussed the weather,
the crop prospects, etc. they parted good
! friends. Well, when / came out here /
| brought good stock of tools, which l
thought would last me through life, and
would last the boys as long as they lived.
Before had got fairly settled had a
chance to lend an auger. After time
l wanted to use the tool and went half a
mile to the borrower to get it.. After
looking his premises over thoroughly he
was unable to find it. He questioned his
| family, but none of them had seen it.
He was sorry. and when he wentto town
he would get mea new one. Butt never
came around, and had to buy an
auger | had planes, augers, bits,
| files, chisels, saws, gimlets, and, in
fact, tools enough to make tolerabe
outfit for a carpenter. These, We're lent,
and broken or lost, one after another,
and in less than three years, not a tool of
my original stock remained that could
use without using some strong language.
The man you saw here few minutes
ago, borrowed that saw few DAYS AGO,
and | had Just paid carpenter thirty
cents to file and set it. It,was in good
condition when he took il, but he or his
boys sawed nails and sand and gravel
until there are hardly any teeth left.
My edge tools always came home, if they
came home at all, with their edges full
of hicks, and if they had undertaken to
grind them they had made mess of it.
l suppose | have been cursed thou
sands of times for not keeping sharper
and better tools by the very men who
put them in a bad condition. But the
| tool that bothered me most was cross
cut aw. After wearing out couple of
files, and spending a half day's'time in
getting it Tin rigs' | could lend it, and
when | brought it home (of course | had
to go after i0 | must use up. more flies
and half days time before could do
anything with it. In this way my neigh
bors have used up three or four saws for
me. Some borrowers are worse than
others. There is man living near here
who never borrowed a tool that he did
not break or lose, or iniure in some
manner After many years of borrow
ing my cross-cut saw, he bought him a
new one. One day | wanted to use a
saw for an hour or two, and mine being
lent some distance from home | called
on my neighbor to borrow his No.
SIR said he.i don't propose to buy saws
for my neighbors to wear out And
that is the way with them all out this
way, they viii blunder into buying a
tool, and then they neither borrow nor
lend. .nt4;iiat|E ~.url. .sq.gu
"My neighbors wore out splendid
grindstone for me, and finally one man
who had done rather more than his share
Of tho xunn riprr o1,E ho,.f-l,t ~ -.
My hired man and a boy were cutting
wood a short distance from this mans
residence, and, wanting to sharpen their
axes, they asked permission to grind,
but were bluntly refused. | had a buggy
and a platform wagon that l used to
lend. They always came home more or
less damaged, and | must pay for the re-
pairs. One man who used my wagons
more than any one else finally got one
of his own. On certain occasion my
buggy was in the shop for repairs, and,
wanting to drive a short distance, asked
the loan of his. He said buggy was'a
mighty poor thing TO lend. Our roads
were rough, and il was not safe to lend
buggy l told him l thought he ought
to know, for he had had my buggy and
wagons a great many times, and he al
ways broke something, and never made
any repairs. j did not get his buggy. q
Il have to buy new tanning mill
every two or three years, and furnish
my neighbors with new scythe' and
snath and several scythe stones every
year. / am not the only sufferer by any
means, Others have tools, and theylend
them, and no man lends tool that does
not suffer more or less. But it is rather
funny to see how independent these
chronic borrowers are when they happen
to get something of their own-they
neither borrow nor lend But the best
of us find it convenient to borrow some
times, and we should return borrowed
articles promptly, and in good order"
He then went off on another subject. -,
I'm. s. Hantington, in Ne,o England
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