Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1888-02-09
The want and Worth OF Things.

How disproportionatc are the want
and the worth of things. A little OBJ
ject, Insignificant in its proportions,
limited and apparently inconsequential
in its use, and mere nothing in cost,
may yet cause great deal of annoy
ance and Inconvenience when the
time for using it arrives and it is want
ing. No one knows this better than
the housekeeper. 1t is in the house
hold, amid the perplexites and de-
mands of housekeeping, thousand in
number and in character, that the
housewife constantly depends upon an
endless variety of little things whose
want is pressing, but whose worth is
bagatelle.
The housekeeper may want a little
piece of wire, headed and pointed and
worth but fraction of mill-a pin
and pins are usually so plenty and
handy that no thought is taken of their
constant and frequent service; but let
the pins be neither plenty nor handy,
let the one pin that is in demand be
out of the way, the need for it imme-
diate and the occasion untransferable,
and the want of the thing swells to un-
seemly proportions. The fact is, our
lives are so made up of these trifles,
they are so compounded of these ''un-
considered trifies' that we make no
account of them until their absence
tells us how much we depend on
them.
Every man knows what slave he
is to button, that diminutive, SER
viceable, cheap, indispensable moth
ing. The button is with him in all his
waking and sleeping moments, it
helps to keep him warm and to give
his clothing tidy appearance. He
lives week in and week out, without
noting the thousands of times that the
button is made to pass into its hole
and out of it, but let the button come
off and what is the hole good for? If
this man, thus unfortunate, be of an
irritable temper and not over choice
in his language, the result need not be
depicted. Even if his temper be I'M
ruffied, he may in measure be help
less until the button is replaced. The
button was nothing, yet it is some
thing. 1t was in obscurity, yet it
now stands out as an obstacle to ac-
customcd action and to happiness.
The housekeeper is dependent on a
thousand of these little things every
day, and nothing ever made this APP
parent more plainly than the old coun-
try housewives habit of borrowing"
''Susie, you 90 over to Mrs. Johnson's
and borrow a cup of molasses;" or,
MARY, want you to go to Mrs. So
and Sos and get me enough saleratus
for baking" And then the little girl
skips over to the neighbours, or letters
along the way, and gets the cents
worth of something; after which the
lender remarks in a superior sort of
way to her family, "1f Mrs. Smith
ever had anything in her house she
wouldn't need to borrow
While all this disclosed an IMPROVE
dence on the part of the borrower or
her husband, or carelessness in pro-
viding, or, perhaps, remoteness from
the ''store," yet at the same time it
tells how the life of the household is
made up of infnitesimals. 1t accounts
for the plant of the good but wearied
housewife, when she longs for change
from the everlasting grind" of doing
and thinking of this little thing and
that little thing.
But after all, the uninteresting de-
tails of life are not to be done away
with. They are part of our exist
ence and it is on them that one stands
when he achieves what is out of the
ordinary. The way of relief is to re-
duce them to an automatic system.
The paraphrase of an old saying sug-
gests the remedy: Take care of the
system and the details will take care
of themselves. If we had to take ac-
count of every step and every inspira-
ton of air, what weary world this
would be;-weary beyond the weari-
ness of the wearicst housewife, COM
planning of the amending repetition of
the worthless little wants incident to
her duties. If, then. you let the Op-
pressive repetitions of satisfying the
thousand little wants that arc worth
less when considered singly, be made
so systematic that they shall be large
ly out of consciousness, the want will
| not always seem so large in proper
ton to the worth of things.-GOod
Housekeeping.