The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1884-06-18
AMATEUR's TOOLS.
And What a NOn>Professi0nal
Dan Do With Them.
The Outfit and the Unpleasant
Consequences Thereof 49, A
r'unny Mans Toe Chest
Various Comments.

bill Nye in Denver Opinion.l
In my opinion every professional
man should keep a chest of carpen.
ter's tools in his barn or shop, and
busy himself at odd hours with them
in constructing the varied articles
that are always needed about the
house. There is great deal of pleas.
ure in feeling your own lndepend-
ence of other trades, and more es.
pecially of the carpenter. Every
now and then you wife will want q
bracket put up IN some corner OF
other, and with your new bright saw
and g%littering hammer you can put
up II upon which she can hang a
cast>iron horse-blanket lambreuuin,
with inflexible water-lllies sewed
in it.
A man will, if he tries, readily
learn to do a great many such little
things, and his wife will brag on him
to other ladies, and they will make
invidiOus comparisons between their
husbands, who can't do anything of
that kind whatever, and you who are
$50 handy.".
Firstly, you buy a set of amateur
carpenter tools. You do not need to
say that you are an amateur. The
dealer will find that cut when O
ask him for an easy-running broad
ak or a green gage plumb-line. He
will sell you a set of amateurs tools
that will be made of old sheet-iron
with Eastwood handles, and the saws
will double up like a piece of stove
pipe.
After you have nailed a board on
the fence successfully, you will very
naturally desire to do something much
better, more difficult. You will prob
ably try to erect a parlor table or a.
rustic settee.
L made a very handsome bracket
last week, and l was naturally proud
OF it.. In fastening it together, If T
hadn't inadvertently nailed it to the
barn door / guess l could have used
it very we'll. but in tearing it loose
from the barn door. so that the two
could be used separately, [ ruined a
bracket that IA intended to serve as
the base, as it were, of a lambreGuin
which cost SO, aside from the time ex-
pended on it.
During the month of March I built
an ice chest for this summer. 1t was
not handsome, but it was roomy. and
would be very nice for the season of
1854, l thought. It worked pretty
well through March aud April, but
the weather begins to warm up
that ice chest is about the warmest
place around the house. There Is
actually a glow of heat around that
G chest that | don't notice elsewhere.
I've shown it to several friends. They |
seem to think it is not built tightly
enough for an ice chest. NV |
brother looked at it yesterday, and
said that his idea of an ice chest was |
that it ought TO be tight enough at
least to hold the large chunks Of ice
20 That they would not escape
through the pores of the icebox. He
avs he never built one, but that it
stands to reason that a refrigerator
ike that ought to be bnilt s. that it
keep the cows out of it. You
1on't want to have a refrigerator
hat the cattle can get through the
cracks of and eat your strawberries
IN ice, he says.
A neighbor of mine, who once
quilt u hen resort of laths, and now
wears a thick thumb nail that looks
Ike a Brazil nut as a memento of
hat pullet corral, says my ice chest
8 all right enough, only that it is not
'ulted to this climate. He thinks
hat along Behring strait, during the
holidays, my ice chest would work
Ike q charm, and even here. he
'hought, If 1 could keep the fever out
u my chest there would be less pain.
l have made several other little
of vertu this spring, to the
of which I have C n
ributed a good deal of time and Two
nails. 1 have also sa wed into
ny leg two or three times. The leg.
i course, will get we'll, but the pant
looms will moi. Parties wishing to
meet me in my studio during the
corning hour will turn into the
iley between Eighth and Ninth
treets, enter the third stable door on
left, pass around behind NV
fothic horse, and give the counter
ign and three kicks on the door in
n ordinary tone Of voice. |.