The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1895-12-04

Mr.. Bowser Makes an Effort to Clean
Out His Stove Pipe and Fails.
! Dat-oit Free Press.
What is it now?" queried Mrs.
Bowser as Mr.. Bowser finished his
after dinner smoke and started up
stairs
Going to save hundred dollars
in cash and indulge in a little bene
fetal exercise at the same time," he
replied.
You are not going to-to tear
any of the walls down or remove the
roof of the house,"
"No, ma'am. Our house is heated
by a furnace. That furnace naturally
has a smoke-pipe. That smoke-pipe
must be cleaned out before we stal t
fire this fall"
But, why don't you get man to
do it?"
''For several reasons. First, I
need the physical exercise. Second,
I don't propose to pay DO stove man
hundred dollars to come up here
and fool around for four weeks over
what will take me about twenty min
utes, Thirdly and lastly, I am a do
mestic man and like to be doing little
odd Jobs around my own house"
''Mr. Bowser, please don't do it,"
gasped Mrs. Bowser as she turned
pale. you'll get the pipe apart and
then-and then-r'
And then clean out a barrel or
two of SCOT, and putt together again" T"
he finished. "I'm going to slip on
my old clothes and have the job over
in half an hour. You just sit down
with the newspaper and you won't
Lear a sound"
"If you'll let it alone I'll get man
pay him out Of my weekly allowance"
she called to him as he was half
way up stairs.
Half an hour-easy as rolling off
log-save a hundred dollars-sit
right down." he replied as he disap-
peared.
Ten minutes later he came down
with an old suit on, and he had in his
hands girnlet, a screw driver, a
monkey wrench, a hammer, o cold
chisel, pot of glue, a glass cutter
and a coil of wire.
why not letitgo until Dacember?'
she asked as he was ready to go, and
planning 70 get some one next day.
'And let a cold wave catch US and
freeze all the water pipes~ he ex-
claimed in answer. "A1rs. Bowser,
you sit right down and don't worry,
I was cleaning out smoke pipes be-
fore you were born, and there's moth
ing in this job to get excited over"
He had scarcely disappeared down
cellar when Mrs. Bowser went to hel
room up stairs and locked the door
Mr.. Bowser lighted up the cellar and
took good look at the stove pipe. Il
was twenty feet long, with one end
at the furnace and the other end il
the chimney, and was supported at
intervals by wires attached to the
ceiling.
"Save just hundred dollars and
have all the physical exercise tc
boot" he muttered as he began al
the wiress There are men who rur
to the glazier, the plumber and The
stove man whenever little job want:
to be done, and there are other mer
who save time and money by taking
hand themselves. The idea of my
getting a man to patter around here
for a month or six weeks"
When the wires had been loosene6
Mr.. Bowser knew just what to dc
next, and he did it. He pulled the
end of the pipe out of the chimney
As soon as that had been done the
FIVE or six joints fell apart with 6
great clatter and he was instantly in
veloped in a cloud of SCOT and ashes
As the Joints fell one of them strucl
his foot and as he made jump te
evade the SCOT he stumbled over an
other and came down on the hare
bottom of the cellar and rolled over
on his back.
"Woman! see how it is" he yelled
out in his frstsurprise, bat the words
were hardly uttered before he got VI
and rubbed his knees and the bacl
of his head aud whispered to him
self:
Its all rigbt-all right! I in
tended to take the joints apart any
way, and this has saved me a lot 0:
trouble. It would have taken stove
man just two weeks to do what I Lave
! Jo~o - I,,, ,,oinr{oc T+'S q wonder