The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1888-11-29
NUMBER 45.
SAVING THE ODDS AND ENDS.

What sort of insane folly is it that
possesses some ofus at times, and makes
us save all our odds and ends of every
description, under the delusion that they
Will come handy some time They
never do come handy but we cling
to them with great tenacity instead Of
having the good sense to bestow them
on the ash man as his rightful preroga-
tives.
My wife and | 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.
| have read of men of wealth who
tr ced the beginning of their riches back
to the time when they carefully saved
pieces of twine, never cutting it from a
bundle, but carefully untying it and lay
ing it away for future use, until they
must have had barrel or two of old
twine ying around some place. Once
| read of a millionaire who set his fell
lowmen an example of thrift by getting
out OF his carriage and picking up rus
Ity nail he saw by the roadside, and
emulated his example until mad about
iOrty pounds of old, rusty, bent and
broken nails lying around and about
once in six months | used a pound or
two of them in trying to find one that
could drive into board without bend
ing or breaking. At last | sold the lot
10r Old iron and got ten oonts for them.
ihen | began to reform, and the other
day began reforming my wife.
was cleaning out the accumulation
OF years in closet in the basement and
plllng most of its contents up for the ash
man when my wife came down stairs.
There are some things in that closet
| want saved ~ she said they'll come
mandy some time" But resolved to
be firm.
You don't want this ?" | said, hold
ing up an old tea kettle without any
spout, and with six big holes in the bot
tom of it,.
well, it might come handy for some
thing some day
l tossed it into the ash barrel and held
up pair of very old boots, discarde,!
four years ago, and now green with
No use in saving these, is there ? 1
well, don't know. A little piece of
leather often comes handy in house for
a hinge or something"
l called to mind pair of leather
hinges ! once made, and the boots fol-
lowed the tea kettle.
What do you want this rusty old
hoopskirt for ?"
Oh. piece of hoopskirt wire often
comes in useful in a house,
III hasn't been asked for in this house
since before the war;" | said. Here's
an old hat of mine that's been living
around nine years. Better throw it
away, hadn't ?n
well, perhaps so. I've often thought
of giving it to some poor man, but for
get IL every time tramp comes around. |
l gave II to one tramp and he went off
ana cct Ielt 1t on the front gate post
Showed his good sense, VI said. "Do
you want all these cd broken dishes ?n
Yes I'll have them all mended
some day. I've intended having it done
for five years" When her back was
turned they went into the ash barrel.
NO use in saving these old bottles,
"Well, a bottles handy thing to have
around. Better save them"
My dear, ! said, here are at least |
seyenty-tiye old bottles, and to my GER
tain knowledge we don't use one year. |
and | think we can trust our great-great-
great-great-grandchildren to get their
own bottles, so here they 60"
In the same reckless, daring way |
threw away three old bustles, old bon
nets, breeches, lamps, skillets, hair
combings, shoes, sawdust, tin pans, old
papers, pop corn, wormy walnuls, soap
grease, broken lamps, spoutless teapots,
bottomless coffee pots, cracked kettles
and ten thousand other things that had
Tor 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.-Free Press.