The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1883-06-27
THE LAY OF THn OLD TIN CAN.

5 THE LAY OF THE OLD TIN Cal
FOR THE MINER.
| 1 believe I've dropped a line abou
the old tin can before, somewhere
sometime-and I don't want to n
peat myself, as great Winds shout
not, as tits said they never do. Yel
though we may have gone to pot tx
gether before now, still, I've more t
say, though attacking q Household
god and talking in the interest G
trade. Now l don't imagine Large,
came to Montana fos his health, no
from its prices do 1 suppose his tin
ware came for any such purpose. l
came to be sold like many Of the res
of us. And I don't suppose Kinna 4
Jack came here with Bright's diseas'
or spinal meningitis. They came t.
sell, aud when these men witness
their tin pots hanging at the ceiling
until the balls rust off and the drafts
begin to whistle in from Chicago au(
the railroad commences to place tin
ware margins upon the wrong side o
the book, I say these patriots mus
wonder how long, O Lord, how Ions
the people of Montana intend to car
~ water, boil soap, pack butter, still
paint, haul coal, draw molasses,
throw slops. set bread, milh
cows, pickle eggs, empty
ashes, soak leaves, put up bull berry
jam, salt pork, mix the batter cakes,
scramble sausage, mop kitchen, store
sugar, keep cake, make u living and
wash their feet in second hand oil
cans. And they want to know when
trade will be given a lift and women
and China cooks stop stewing in to-
mato holders, and cease storing away
what the British call ''tins."
I know how it is-dOn't 1 keep
house, and don't she save every can
she empties? Save 'em for what ?
EverythiDg-seap holders, clippers,
flOwer-pots, stew-pans, water buckets
and ground coffee; and don't she post
me off down town for yeast every
Saturday with one of the ragged
edged things; without a handle?
When you open the pantry door when
her back is turned, to snatch a cookie
what falls down with a crash and ex-
poses you to discovery and no cake?A
pile of old tin cans, saved up for next
years. crab apples. When some
body's COW is in the yard and you
hunt the hammer to fix the fence,
where is it Behind a mathematical
heap of cans rowed up twenty high
in front of the hammer, for use when
the leaky old things now in service
have lest their bottoms. Do you get
the hammer? You try it; topple go
the cans, round ones, square one. OBJ
long ones, down they rattle in a jiffy,
clumsy old fool"
And what becomts of the cans
when use has unsoldered them and
they can't do anything but sizzle
upon the stove? Are they thrown
Some are; but the "best of
are piled upon the top shelf
for flower pots, to tumble down every
time the door is opened and every
time the door is shut. Thrown
away? Flow? Anywhere-the back
door Is opened a foot, and out goes a |
can to cut the heel off your rubbers
and for you to pick up. What do I
do all summer? Pick up tin cans.
What do I do all winter? Pick up
lin cans. And when / want to use
. box I'd put away for future use, or
4 barrel I'd hidden under the stoop,
what do I find it filled with? Tin
cans. What's in the recesses Of the
under the steps. and con-
,ealed in the cellar? Tin cans; and
[ take nay solemn oath the women
Of Butte have more cans ''put away
ban would shingle every roof in
What for-d0 they ever
Use one in fifty of them-c0uld they
ever? But just watch a woman
a chair and stretch herself
Utmost in two lengthwise to set
he last can upon the lettering pile
has been accommodating on the
OPP shelf for the last year without
motive on earth except to have
ans on hand. You'd imagine her
o be piling eggs; and with good rea-
on, for an upright row of empty tin
ans is about as uncertain and tOttle-
sh an erection as was ever devised.
It was upon such an occasion that
went home II afternoon. There
he stood; a ricketty chair in the
lOset, a soap box upon the chair, and
be atop the box stretching from the
Ups of her oes up, balancing herself
nth one arm plying about in the air,
7hile she tried to set a round can
pom a pile of forty other round cans.
One hundred and two," che exult-
1gly remarked to herself as I leered
I at the door; "102 here, and another
early empty-that will make 1903
3 in the cellar and IS under the sink.
nd then that barrel full down in
he wood shelby spring I'll have
It's of 'em. I'll bet there isn't a
oman in towns had such luck as
We bad. Why, 1 must have nearly
600 of 'emW
what good are they?" L exclaim-
!, startling her so that she upset the
y cans, and the chair careened and
|e soap box cantled and she and the
* and the chair and the 1O2 cans
like a thousand of bricks :,
ith a laundering crash amongst 3
70 pots and waffle irons and sauce c
N covers at the bottom of the \
Dset. i
she screamed, as she set \
L and settled into the wash boiler. :
you did that a purpose!"
nd as l stumbled about over the 1O2
rs to rescue her from the boiler, 7,
ID seized a broom and opened the
or and swept the accumulation in
the yard, she tried to rise. But n,
no could rise with a twenty gallon IS
,sh boiler, a-a-that is, q ma fe
ight, but a woman can't. So, as I o,
aced my feet against the boiler, she Is
sped her arms about my neck and fe
pulled ''for all that was out h,
in the boiler. She came, saving a til
n in each hand, and came so sud- pi
My that I shot head first into the ca
under the sink. Did it ruin 81,
s65 cans? It did. Now, she says 20
} economy to save the cans-but I IN h
Ow her mania oyer cans has in wi
ased my canned goods bills one be
ndred per cent. since the mania 81 !!
in. If she sees a can, she wants of
she is Mrs. Toodles, redivivus-it mt