Thomas County cat., 1889-11-28
Mr.. AND MRS. sowsER.

the house and give it a careful looking over.
and when he came in ] asked.
.You are not thinking Of making any 70
pairx. are your
Well, not exactly repairs. but was just
thinking that could make great improve
ment
'HowT
The paint hasn't held its color. and think
| shall have the house gone over asain-jlst
q light coat, you know"
MIR Bowser. this house was painted only
SIX months ago At that time We had half Q
dozen men around here for nearly a month
Yes. h;it the color has fadeai"
Didn't | warn you at the time that il
wouli fade, And didn't everybody laugh at
the idea of your putting pea green on a red
brick housef'
No. ma am, they didn't! Everybody com
! pimented my taste. I've had a dozen people
Of cultivation and taste tell me that it was
! perfect harmony, and that there war nothing
in town to match it. But it's just like you.
Whenever desire to make an improvement
you are the drag on me
"But let it go until spring, anyhow"
Mrs Bowser. did you ever hear the word
economyF"
"Yes, sir"
But you evidently do not understand what
it means 1t means, in a broad sense. to sell
where you can sell the highest and buy where
you can buy the cheapest. The painting sea-
sen is about closed, lots of men are out of
work, and can get this house painted now
SO cheaper than next spring Isn't $40 worth
saving"
Yes, but the house doesn't need it.
Not in your Judgment, perhaps People
; who were brought up in log houses in the
country have tastes peculiarly their own
The house will Ge painted.
He crossed his hands under his coat tails,
paced up and down the sitting room, and. Of
course. sunk into insignifcance and dropped
the subject. Two days later four or five
hard looking fellows with paint OH their
clothes came up and looked the outside Of the
house over. At brief intervals they consult
I'd together and made figures Oh the back
gate At other brief intervals they meas
ured the width and length of the house with
a tape line. After three hours hard work
they came to a conclusion Of some sort and
then went out to the barn to rest their tired
brains and wait for Mr.. Bowser TO appear.
When he came home he confabbed with them
for half an hour, made more figures on the
back gate, and finally told them to 60 ahead.
"They won't make the least muss around"
he said as he came in. They'll skim right
over in about two days, and you'll hardly
know they have been here"
It looked to me as If they meant to take q
whole week for it, and / went out to inter
! view the boss ON the subject. He did some
more measuring with tape line, put down
some more figures on the back gate. counted
his long and short ladders over, and finally
replied:
II did say two weeks at first, ma'aln, but
il the weather holds good think twelve days
will see the last of it."
Twelve daysF
Not over thirteen, anyhow"
Are you doing this by the jobf"
''Oh, no, ma'am. Some of the scrubs take
jobs AID rush 'em through and cheat folks in
tho Eiost horrible manner, but we don't. We
work by the day and do our work WELL"
Then began circus which lasted just
seventeen days without a change of pro-
gramme. Every painter went down into tho
basement to inspect the walls of the house
They were gone just half an hour. When
they reapTeared they inspected the interior
of the barn. and were invisible for a long
hour. Then they came out and managed to
raise a ladder against the side of the house
They might possibly have raised another
during the forenoon, but one of them fortu
na:ely observed that the first ladder was a
little slnky. This brought about consulta
ton, and the ladder was taken down and in
spected. By a vote of three to two it was de
cided that one of the rungs was loose Then
the five put in just an hour and a half hunt
ing for hammer and nails, glue pots, wedges
crowbars. jack screws. pile drivers and other
articles deemed necessary to make repairs
When Mr.. Bowser came home to dinner not
thing had been done in the way of paint
ing complained of this. but he replied:
"Oh, give them show. They have got to
get ready. When once they start they will
move like q cyclone"
"Why did you hire them by the dayf
TO get good work"
During the afternoon the painters raised
a second ladder, mixed about gallon Of
color, and carefully inspected and gave each
other their individual opinions Oh the age
and nationality of the kitchen girl
Half an hour before Mr.. Bowser came home
one Of them carefully and cautiously ascend.
Cd a ladder, painted q portion Of a bracket
and came down and went over on the back
street to see how it looked The others went
over to help him, and none Of them were
seen again that afternoon
Tho second day was but slight improve
ment on the first, and it was four DAYS before
one could see that any work had been done
Then Mr. Bowser concluded he didn't like the
color. and he had it changed He was ear
nestly advised to do this by tine painters. who
said the cclor they had been putting OH was
rather GU: Of date and did not harmonic
witt, tie cc,,,r of our trout door
At tie end of the twenty second day Mr
.ows.i- came home to fii.d r.i;i: iuurfifths of
tie work had been accom-! !.iisned He got
mad and discharged the whole crowd ont of
.laDd, although the boss pitifuily protested
"Ncver drove a gang of men 50 iard in my
life. ard 6;,! want tn do a job here to which
could point with pride
When Mr Bowser came in ne beSan to fig
ure. | saw bis hair begin to stand ON end.
and presently he exclaimed
Mrs Bowscr. do you know what your
foolish whiIn has cost me in cold CASH.
my foolish whiIni What do you meanr
81 mean what I say, | had this houss
DAiuted to piease YOU and t!iOSe internal