St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1888-09-27
HANDY THINGS.
zena. Dane in Detroit Free Pres.

ZGHUS OQHt Va ~
What sort of insane folly is it that
possesses some of us at times and
makes us save all our odds and ends of
every description under the delusion
that they will "come handy" some
timef They never do "come handy"
but we cling to them with great tenaci-
ty instead of having the good sense to
bestow them on the ash man as his
rightful prerogatiyes.
MY wife and l have well developed
economical tendencies, and we pride
ourselves on never wasting a thing
that may "be useful" or "come handy"
at any time in the dim future.
l have read of men of wealth who
traced the beginning of their riches
back to the time when they carefully
saved pieces of Irvine, never cutting it
from a bundle, bat carefully untylng 1T
and laying it away for future use, un-
til they must have a a. barrel or two
of old Irvine lying around some place.
Once / read of a millionaire who set
his fellOw-nen an example OF thrift by
getting out of his carriage and picking
up a rusty nail he saw by the roadside,
and | emulated his example until L had
about 40 pounds of old, rusty, bent and
broken nails lying around, and about
once in six months L used a pound or
two of them in trying to find one
that / could drive into a board without
bending or breaking. At last [ sold
the lot for old iron and got ten cents
for them. Then 1 began to reform.
The other day l began reforming my
wife.
l was cleaning out the accumulation
of years in a closet in the basement
and piling most of it's contents for the
ash man when my wife came down
stairs.
"There are some things in that closet
l want saved" she said, 'they1l come
handy sometime" But l resolved to
be firm.
"You don't want this 2" I said, hold
ing up an old teakettle without any
spout and with six big holes in the
bottom of it.
"Well, it might come handy for
something some day."
| tossed it into the ash barrel and
held up a pair of very old boots dis
carded four years ago and now green
with mold.
"No use in saving these, is there 7"
| asked.
"Well, L don't know. A little piece
of leather often comes handy in a house
for a hinge or something"
| called to mind a pair of leather
hinges once made, and the boots fol-
lowed the teakettle.
"What do you want this rusty old
hOOp-skirt for 7"
ooh, a piece of hoOp-skirt wire often
comes in useful in a house."
at hasn't been asked for in this
house since before the war;" 1 said.
"Here's al old hat of mine that's been
lying around nine years. Better throw
it away, hadn't | 2"
"T've often thought of giving it to
some poor man but L forget it every
time a tramp comes round. l gave it
to one tramp and he went off and left
it on tie front gate post"
"Showed his good sense" l said.
"Do you want all these old broken
dishes 2"
eyes. Tl have them all mended
some day. Pve intended having it
lone for five years"
When her back was turned they
wen into the ash barrel.
"NO use in saving these old bottles,
ell ~
"Well, a bottles a handy thing to
have around. Better save them"
"My DEAR" 1 said, "here are at least
IS old bottles, and to my certain
knowledge we don't use n a year,
and | think we can trust our great
-great-great-grandchildren to get
their own bottles so here they CO."
In the same daring, reckless way, 1
threw away three old bustles. old bon
nets, breeches, lamps, skillets, hair
combings, shoes, sawdust, tin pans,
old papers, pop corn, wOrmy walnuts,
soap grease, broken lamps, spOutless
teapots, ~bottomless coffee pots, cracked
kettles and 10000 other things that
had for years and years waited their
turn to "cOme handy" but which never
would or could "come handy" in this
world or in the world to come.