The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1884-06-07
An Amateur Carpenter.
By Bill Nye.

In my opinion every professional man
should keep a chest of carpenters 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 a
great deal of pleasure in feeling your
own independence of other trades. and
most especially of the carpenter. Every
now and then your wife will want a
bracket put up in some corner or other,
and with your new, bright saw and
glittering hammer you can put up one
upon which she a hang a cast-iron
horse blanket lambrequin, with inlex-
ible water lilies 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 are $50 handy"
Firstly, you buy a set of amateur car
penter tools. You do not need to say
that you are an amateur. The dealer
will find'that out when you ask him fer
an easy-running broad-ax or a green
gage plumb line. He will sell you a
set of amateurs tools that will be made
of old sheet-lron with Eastwood handles,
and the saw will double up like a piece
of stove pipe.
After you have nailed a board on the
fence successfully, you will very natu-
rally desire to do something much bet
ter, more difficult. You will probably
try to erect a parlor table or a rustic
settee.
/ made a very handsome bracket last
week, and l was naturally proud of it.
In fastening it together, if l hadn't in
advertently nailed it to the barn floor, |
I guess l could have used it very well,
but in tearing it loose from the barn,
so that the two could be used separate
ly, l ruined a bracket that was intended
to serve as the base, as it were of a
lambrequin which cost 50, aside from
the time expended 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 1884, 1
thought. 1t worked pretty well
through March and April, but as 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 ice-chest that 1 don't
notice elsewhere. I've shown it to sew
eral personal friends. They seem to
think it is not built tightly enough for
IN ice-chest. My 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 larger
chunks of ice so they would not escape
through the pores of the ice-box. He
said he never built one, but that it stood
to reason that a refrigerator like that
ought to be constructed so that it would
keep the COWS out. You don't want a
refrigerator that the cattle can get
through the cracks of and eat up your
on ice, he says.
A neighbor of mine who once built a
hen resort of laths, and now wears a
thick thumb nail that looks like a Bra
I'll nut, as 8 memento of that pullet
says my icechest is all right
only that it is not suited 10 this
He thinks that along Behr-
strait, during the holidays, my {
icechest would work like a charm.
And ever here, he thought, if l could ]
Keep the fever out of my chest there 8
would be less pain. /
1 have made several other little ar |
,icles of vertu this spring, to the con- |
of which [ have contributed a |
rood deal of time and two finger nails.
have also sawed into my leg several J