The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1889-04-11
CHRONIC BORROWERS.
Revelations by Lady Writer Who Knows
All About Them.

frI AL ADOut Tnems
II you. ARE buying house in q neigh.
hood unknown to you, you will natur-
ally ask oil kinds OF questions. You
will want to know IL the drainage IL
good. II the air is pure, II there has
ever been malaria, how far 1t Is to the
depot and post-office; but ten to one
you don't inquire II there are any bor-
rowers in the neighborhood.
Now, a chronic borrower is deadly
nuisance in a community. A woman
who is always 'just out" OF saleratus
will stir up more trouble in neigh
borhood than u mad-dog, and flock
Of fifteen hens. and rooster.
She will run in on you at any and all
hours, and want to borrow just little
sugar, or spice, till she can send to the
grocer's. She really did not know she
was anywhere near out, till she went
about her cooking, and then she found
that she hadn't dust OF sugar in the
house. and not soul around anywhere
that she could send out after any!
And she will tell you that she does
80 hate to trouble you; for II there Is
any thing on earth that she dislikes to
do 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 groc-
er's. And she will sit down in your
kitchen, and stop half an hour, and
talk about every body in town; and,
meanwhile, she will take an account Of
every thing her eyes fall on, and she
will see behind your stove the
cobwebs that you forgot to
brush down this morning; and
she will notice the old books that your
husband left on tho wood-box to dry,
and she will see that your lamp Chin
neys 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 neigh
bor's house. on borrowing expedi-
tion, she will give report Of what she
saw in your kitchen, and swear the
neighbor over to eternal secresy re-
garding It; and the consequence will
be that in week it will be all over
town that your folks live on ham, and
that you are the most untidy house,
keeper on the footstool.
When the borrower returns what she
borrows, it is always in little smaller
measure, II, indeed, she returns IL at
all. And you may congratulate your
self II you get half what belongs to
you.
A regular borrower will borrow
every thing. from piece OF salt fish
for breakfast, down to your boy, II you
have one.
The book borrower is even a greater
nuisance than the woman who borrows
household supplies. She never hesi-
tates to ask for the choicest or costliest
books in your house. And she seems
to think that she confers favor on you
by so asking.
And If you are fool enough to lend,
the possibility is that you will have to
60 after the books in question, and will
find on doing so that she has lent them
to some 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.
In the course OF our life we have
been asked to lend every thing in the
book line that ever we owned, except
ever seemed to care about borrowing
that; and in nine times out OF ten,
when we have complied, our literature
has come back to us in shape that
fitted it only for kindlings-if, indeed,
we were lucky enough ever to set eyes
on 1t.
So we say to all our friends, II it be
possible to avoid 1t, never have bor-
rover for q neighbor.-N Y. Weekly.