The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1889-08-08
aadersua gnte11igeafer.
Chronic Borrowers,

If you are buying house in neigh.
borhood unknown to you, you will natur-
ally ask all kinds of questions. You
will want TO know if the drainage is
good, if the air is pure, if there has ever
been any malaria, how far it is to the
depot and postoi6ce, but ten to one you
don't inquire if there are any borrowers
in the neighborhood
Now 8 chronic borrower isa deadly
nuisance in a community. A woman
who is always 'just out" of saleratus
will stir up more trouble in q neighbor.
hood than mad dog and flock of 6f-
teen hens and rooster.
She will run in on you at any and
all hours, and want to borrow just q
little sugar, or spice, till she can send
to the grocer's. She really did not
know she vas anywhere near out till she
went about her cooking. and then she
found she hadn't dust of augar in the
house and not a soul around anywhere
that she could send out after any.
And she will tell you that she does
80 hate to trouble you; for if there is
anything on earth she dislikes to do it is
to borrow--and she never does it when
she can help it; but now her pie crust
is all on the plates, and she was obliged
to, because she could not spare the time
to run to the grocer's. And she will sit
down in your kitchen and stop half an
hour, and talk about everybody in town !;
and, meanwhile, she will take an account
of everything her eyes fall on, and she will
see behind your stove the cohwebs that
You forgot to brush down this morning;
and she will notice the old boots that
your husband left on the woodbox to
dry, and she will see that your lamp
chimneys have not been washed, and
that your dishes are in the sink, and
that you had ham for breakfast by the
spatter of grease on the stove; and when
she goes into some other neighbor's
house on a borrowing expedition she
will give report of what she saw in
your kitchen, and swear the neighbor
over to eternal secrecy regarding it; and
the consequence will be that in a week
it will be all over town that your folks
live on ham and that you are the most
untidy housekeeper on the footstool.
When the borrower returns what she
borrows, it is always in little smaller
measure, if indeed, she returns it all.
And you may congratulate yourself if
you get half what belongs to you.
A regular borrower will borrow every
thing, from piece Of salt fish tor break
fast, down to your boy, if you have one.
The book borrower is even greater
nuisance than the woman who borrows
household supplies. She never heaitates
to ask for the choicest or costliest
books in your house. And she seems to
think that she confers favor on you by
80 asking.
And ifyou are fool enough to lend,
the possibility is that you will have to
go after the books in question, and will
find on doing so that she has lent them
to a friend of hers, who wanted to read
them, and she will tell you that she knew
you would be willing-you are so good
natured.
To the course of our life We have been
asked to lend everything in the book line
that ever. we owned, except our Bible,
and somehow nobody ever seemed to
care about borrowing that, and in nine
cases out of ten, when ne have complied
our literature has come back to US In q
shape that fitted it only for kindling-if,t.
indeed, we we're lucky enough to ever set
eyes on it.
So We say to all our friends, if it be
possible to avoid it, never have Dor.
rover for neighbor.- -:Nep 'YorE Wssk:
b. -, -.