The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1884-06-05
MRS. TIPTON'S TREASURER.

If Mr.. Upton had not been uncom
monty careful in relation to scrip and
wallet, and had not tied his purse.
strings SO very closely that it was as
much as her life was worth to get them
open, Mrs. Upton might not have needed
. treasurer But as it was, unable
to get dollar without undergoing cross
examination. and receiving criticism,
and rendering strict account afterward,
and most usually unable to get it then,
Is MIR. Upton preferred making his own
purchases and getting his own change,
she was driven to her rag-bag. She
used to laugh at her jest about it, say
ing that if her resulting coin was ever
so hard and shining, it was nevertheless
rag-money. Ragmoney or not. it was
unspeakably precious to Mrs. Upton.
1t may be that her frequent and dire
want of any sort of money made the
financial question OF more interest to
her than it might have been otherwise
She read the accounts of the great for
tunes of great men with a real relish;
read the story of the sources of Queen
Victoria's income, and rolled the items
of the civil list under her tongue like
sweet morsels; read the daily statement
of the internal revenue, and all that
she could find about the National debt;
even read the monthly returns of the
great railroads, comparing them with
these usually given of the year before,
and fancying for one delicious moment,
as she read, that it might make diff
ference in her dividends, she who never
had had dividend. nor ever expected
one. She read all the debates on the
silver question-dry enough to crumble
as they were-to no other end than q
hopeless muddling of her wits, and ran
her eye over the market quotations of
stocks and bonds, without ever finding
out what it meant when it said that
money sold for from six to seven per
cent
1t was rather singular fact, consid-
ering her interest in the subject, that
she had never seen bond. She knew
that Mr.. Upton had some bonds; but,
so far as she had any idea of them at
all, she figured them in her mind as re-
sembling either small map On wooden
rollers or the bunch of decorated
shaving papers which she always gave
her husband at Christmas, receiving in
return from him new pocket-handker-
chief. There was just such bunch
now hanging up blythe desk in the little
back room that he called his den,
and she had treated it with reverence
for some time, SIS species of emissary
from the Treasury of the United States;
1t was one of Mr.. Tipton's habits to put
valuables in perfectly open and obvi-
Gus, and therefore unsupported, place
In order to confound house breakers,
which made her fancy concerning it less
Irrational She never could forget Mr..
Tipton's inscrutable face when she
asked about it once, and he told her it
was pen-wiper Or course her ignor-
ance only added to Mr.. Tipton's con-
tempt for her feminine calibre, and to
his conviction that women might be
trusted with their children, under
supervision, with care of souls and
care of sick and diving, but
that so valuable a thing as money was
not to be given into such weak hands.
Why should he show her q boud, that
she might know what the thing was
like There were some things that
women had no need of knowing. The
consequence of all which niggardliness
and want OF trust was that Mrs. Upton
had to resort, as have said, to her rag
bag.
That the good woman saved every
shred of thread. every travelling, every
scrid of paper to be seen on the floor,
only rave her husband reason to think
that she was the neatest of neat house
keepers, rs, Of course, he had a right
that his wife should be- That there
never was a newspaper to be found that
was more than a week old was rather
puzzling to him but then there were
fires TO kindle, and window-panes to
polish. and shelves to be covered, saving
paint, and carpets to be lined, and
clothes to be wrapped up and put away,
and so, perhaps, that was all right.
She had said once, in answer to his
inquiry, that nobody borrowed them.
"Well," he said then, ''you needn't
take whole newspaper to kindle fire:
L can get blaze with one wiSp." She
always had piece of soft cloth handy
TO do up cut or bruise, so that it had
not yet occurred to him to observe that
there were never any old rags in the
house. On the whole, he had not sus-
pected the existence of that ag-bag
that is. in any undue proportions.
Every well-regulated house had a rag
bag, the sale of whose contents kept
the tin-ware in repair; his mothers al
ways did. And so, fortunately or was
it unfortunately ?-MrS. Tipton's source
OF revenue remained undiscovered and
undisturbed. -s|
If MIR. Upton had looked into that
receptacle he would doubtless have
raised the roof with his cutlery over the
things which he would have seen at
such time as any emergency required
the raising of some vast sum-say
dollar and half. Only an emergency,
however; for under ordinary pressure
Mrs Upton kept strictly within the
line OF cuttings and clippings, news
papers and letter envelopes. She mad
been able with this sometimes. taking
the whole course of the year. to have
her old hat made over and get herself
- couple of pairs of stockings with no
darnS to make her tender feet burn like
live Goals. She resorted to extreme
neasures only when extreme want