The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-09-23
The Crime OF Wastefulness.

should buy so many 'hings wherein for.
eigners exercise the -trictest economy?
1t is no exaggeration to say that
French family of The lower class could
easily subsist upon the waste Of an
American family in ordinary circum-
stances, and occasionally have better
dishes upon their table than the origi-
nal purchaser of the food. And The
writer is qu te correct ii the state
ment "what New York servant girl
slams into The garbage barrel every
week would support dozen hinese
families. And yet our people are al.
ways complaining of hard times, and
are making wry faces about getting on
in the wo'ld."
Certainly economy is not one of our
national traits. The cutting down Of
great trat is of valuable timber and
leaving it to rot upon the ground in
order to clear fields for planting a
large, poorly-culrivated, upproductive
crop of corn or cotton, Is too common
a spectacle to excite any comment
among us. Then, when those fields
have ben worked year after year
without any aid from fertilizers, they
are abandoned to grow in pine or scrub
oak, and new lands are cleared oftheir
timber. The idea of planting trees
that would soon become valuable
would be regarded ss foolish. Even
the planting OF shade trees arouod the
house, or of an orchard that would in
few years produce an abundance Of
fruit is too much Of an exertion for
the average American. If there
should chauce to be shade trees on The
site where he builds he may spare
them, and he may even 60 so far as
to set out half d"zen fruit trees and
q vine or two; but it is exceptional t"
find one who has the forethuught to
provide for the comfort Of his family
by attention to these things.
The lordly extravaganza of Amer
leans in the matter Of land is only pos
slble in a country like this where ev-
cry man owns his farm, and where the
population is sparse as compared with
other parts Of the world. In densely
peopled countri. every foot Of ground
aud every stick of timber is prizsd, and
such spo's as are unsuited fur pastur-
age or cultivation are planted in trees
that soon become valuable. Accus-
toned as we are to seeing miles and
miles of land without inhabitants and
apparently without an owner, we are
greatly struck by the immense labor
expended in retaining land, and the
thorough and minute cult, alton be-
slowed upon it in Holland, Belgium,
and in parts of France and Germany,
Will the wonderful amount of vege-
tables, fruits, etc, that the Cbinaman
can make grow upon few rods Of
land is surprising to us.
The habit of wastefulness is espe-
cially noticeable in American house
keeping and all departments of home
life. Children are rarely required to
be careful in their habits or in expen-
diture. They are furnished with
wonderful variety Of toys and allowed
to dest oy them almost as room as re-
ceived, and the amount Of money
expended in this way by Americans
furnishes a support for Thousands Of
people in Germany and France who
live by toy-making. Toy shops here
do a hourisbing business, especially al
Christmas time, and q great part Of
their profit arises from the sale Of me.
chanical toys, that. being pat nted,
sell at many times their real value,
and rarely last more than an hour after
reaching the child's hands. The
amusing part of this is that it is the
grown people who most enjoy them
and who are interested in seeing their
mechanism. 1t is seldom q surprise
to child to see q doll walk or talk,
| since she believes the very commonest
of them capable of doing all that when
it likes. Ha,ing passed the age of
TOYS they become careless in the
scho ] room OF their books, paper,
etc., careless at table with regard to
| he amount of food they waste, and of
their ,lothes, which are usually more
expensive than those worn ny children
in the same rank of life in other coun-
tries.
Of course, if carefulness and econo-
my have not been learned in child
hood they are not likely to develop
! later, and girl who has been brought
up III q home where lavish expendi-
ture has prevailed will probably make
but an Indifferent housekeeper when
she has home Of her own--There is
mistaken notion abroad in the land
that it is mean and n'ggardly to be
economical unIes. one is really poor.
1t i. the natural consequence Of the
Ease with which so many fortunes
have been acquired in America. When
people lay by money, dollar at
time, that has been laboriou>ly made,
they are not apt to begin to SOW il
broadcast as soon as competency has
been reached But wh'n, bv some
stroke of fortune, wealth is gained, it
does not seem nearly SO precious, and
the owner usually thinks that what he
has done once he can do again. In
consequence of tins "come easy, 60
easy" policy great revtrses of fortune
are Of common occurrence, and the
millionaire OF to-day will sometimes
be almost pauper the next month.
When men attach so littl- impor-
tance to the money they have made,
i5 is natural that their wives should
be even more careless Of it. There
are, happily, some women still in the
land to whom the glowing e. conims of
King Lemuel might be truthtully ap-
piled, but for one who "Iooketh well
to the ways of her household" there
are hundreds who are too much occu-
pied with their social pleasures, or in
settling the affairs of the nati"n, to
take much heed to the wastefulness OF
their servants, and to the useless eX-