Connecticut western news., 1885-01-28
A CLEAR CASE OF ECONOMY.
The Little Woman nt Home Badly Poole
 by n Confidence Man.

One OI l0OSe ltLle hphBcS A6shAASA w for "raising the wind" by members of thnt great and increasing class who hang upon the edges of trampdom and re- spectfully but firmly decline to work or pursue any honest calling, is illustrated in the following incident, which actually occurred in the suburbs of St. Louis within Q fortnight. A husband return ing home at evening, was met at the door by his wife, who, after the usual salutation, said:
 "oh, George. I have something to show you"
 "What is it ?"
 "Neyer mind, but come and see it.
 She preceded him into the cosy little parlor and pointed triumphantly to white, woven strip, about six inches in length, lying in the place of honor on the centre table.
 "Look, she said; "what do you sup pose that is, George, dear? ?' and her voice assumed the gentle tones of one about to communicate a pleasant sur prise.
 "That, ," reioined George, approaching the table to inspect the article, "that, to me, Susan, looks fearfully and wonder fully like common piece of lamp wick. ing."
 "Ha, ha; I knew you'd say that. You men arc so stupid. It is a lamp wick, but not Q common one. It is one of the greatest inventions of the age. It is m electric lamp wick, George. I know from the man from whom bought 1t; and he was a very nice looking man, too, well-dressed, and such a talker; told me about how it came to be invented, and how Professor Somebody of something spent years of his life in experimenting and died just as he got it perfected. All you have to do is to fill your lamp with oil, put in the wick and light it. After few days an incrustation forms on the outside, cryssalized electricity he called it, and the lamp will burn six months without rehling. There's one in the lamp now. Don't you see it gives brighter light P
 George stood stupehed. He looked at the wick reposing in quiet dignity on the table as if fully conscious it was master of the situation; at the burning lamp, which gave forth brilliant, steady light, and at Susan herself, in whose eyes rested the unmistakable as- surance of victory, and involuntarily calculated "Maybe there's something in it. How many of them did you buy2"
 "Only three, dear, at a quarter apiece. Think of the saving, George Why could buy new cloak next win ter from the money that would have been wasted in coal oil"
 George waited and his wife waited tc see what would come of the investment when the electrical crus. had formed or the wick. The next night, sure enough there was the lamp as full as ever, and shedding as good light. On the thirs and fourth evenings it was the same The wick was examined but showed nc signs of the process of incsustatior having begun. The wife explained thaI it might be week or ten days before this happened. George scratched his head and was on the point of surrender. ing, when bright idea occurred to him. He called the servant. Betty do you always fill the parlor lamp"
 "Yes, sir."
 "Did you All it MondOyY"
 "Yes, sir.
 Tuesday ?"
 "Yes, si=."
 Wife (trautically) -"wednesday and Thursday ?"
 ''Yes, num-"
 There was a moment of sgcnizint suspense, and then the economical littl, lady sat down on Q chair in one cornei of the room and began crying softly tC herself. It was not so much the OK pense. It was plain to her now that on, couldn't believe in the horrid, deceitfu men. When the enterprising agen calls on her now, she unohains the doS and sends for the nearest policeman Thus do the innocent suffer for thu guilty.-St. Louis Rcpublican.