Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-07-04
Making Things Tidy.

a tidy, neat man IN neighborhood is
a perfect god-send TO the community in
which he lives. Example does an i'm
mense deal of good or evil, as the case
may be, in this world, and there are a
great many things besides the measles
that are catching.
When the tidy man begins to clean up
his grounds, and dispose of the rubbish in
his door yard, all the neighbors watch
him and note how he does it, and before
long all the people on that street will be
picking up and putting on their best out
door looks.
1t is curious to note how the example
of enc man will affect so many others,
and how Mr.. Smith and Mr.. Jones, and
Mr.. Brown will clean up their premises,
simply because Mr.. Robinson has put his
place in order.
Paint one house on a street yellow, and
in the course of the year two-thirds of
the houses in that vicinity will come out
in yellow attire. Different shades and a
variety of trimmings, perhaps, but still
plainly showing that the first yellow house
Influenced the complexion of all the other
houses.
The man who is cleaning up generally
likes to have his wife out with him to offer
suggestions, and to tell him how nice it
looks. he will ask her to step out to the
shed and hand him the garden rake, just
as if his life depended ION the haste he
made gathering up the dead leaves, and
old boots, and the bones the dog had
brought up to gnaw at his leisure; and by
the time she brings the rake he wants the
hoe, and soon after the trowel, and SO the
wife makes herself generally useful. And
the next morning her husband will tell his
next neighb that he cleaned that door
yard all up himself in less than two
hours.
You cannot clean up your grounds with
out a good many tools. You want rake,
AID hoe, and shovel, and broom, and
wheelbarrow, and basket, and some
good gloves, aud bunch of matches, and
all the kindling you can spare, for of
course the thing cannot be properly
done without fire to consume all of the
rubbish.
And all creation will smell of burnt
leather, and old Iubbers, and bones, and
your hair and clothing will be full of
smoke, and your arms will ache, and your
back will feel as if it had been taken
apart and put together by a man who
had never learned his trade; and your
finger nails will be torn down, and the
skin will be off you, knuckles, and the
toes of your boots will be stubbed out,
and the whole town will go past while you
are about it; and your wife will run be-
hind the wood shed SO that her acquaiL-
tances cannot see the old dress she has
on; and if the minister does not call while
you are about it you may consider your
self fortunate.
1t is dirty job to clean up the prem
ises in the spring; but every right mind
ed person enjoys it. There is some thing
exhilerating ii singing the old tomato
CAPS, and the battered sardine boxes, in
to the ash BARREL; and here is sweet and
soothing sense of victory in seeing the
flames consume the old oil cloth that has
tripped you so many times in the back
hall; and the worn out kindling basket,
out of which every morning all winter the
shaving have been sifted on the carpet,
and the temper of the housekeeper has
risen to fever heat in consequence.
And when the rubbish is scraped away,
the fresh green grass shows itself new
and courageous after it's long rest under
the snow, and the dandelions suggest
greens, and the tiger lilies in the sunny
corner of the fence send up their pointed
spikes, and the family cat purs ecstati-
cally around the fragrant catnip root;
and the hens, led oy the dignifed zoos
ter, come to investigate the ground for
worms, and turn up to the air and sun the
three dollars a dozen tulip bulbs you
planted last fall.
Your wife discovers pansy in them;
and you are gratified to find that the wis
terra by the porch is struggling back into
the world; a socially inclined and adven-
venturOus MOSQUITO bQZZes uuSically
around your nose, and amiably tells you
that he is ready for business when you
are.
Aud by and by the night falls, and you
sleep sweetly in the consciousness of duty
done.-Kate Thorn in the New York
Weekly.