The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1896-03-05
WHAT Is YOUR "PET MEAN
NESS?''

II is said that nearly everybody has
rooted aversion TO giving away some
one thing. No matter how generous
the man or woman may be. IN this one
thing he or she Is a miser Baron
James Rothschild, 1t is related, did not
In the least mind giving thousands of
dollars to a hospital-tens of thou
sands. in dozens of directions-but
when II came to postage-stamps he
could not bear to pay on his private
letters. but would smuggle them in AT
the expense OF the firm.
Frances Courtenary Baylor contrib
utes 10 the December Lippincott's a
humorous article on this subject from
which the following is taken:
one OF the richest women In this coun-
Wy hoards matches as II they were SO
many wands studded with diamonds. She
Will give one or two under protest. 10 a
relative in need OF them, but she bliNs
5 tnem by the gross, and lights and re-
lights them until the last charred biz
1nlls OF, leaving her often with burnt fin
gers and a regretful wish that she could
nave used that one once more When her
children come of age she gives each of
them $4,000 with the greatest possible
eheerfulness, but II they were to ask her
Tor whole box of matches she would
reel that she was being Impoverished, ana
Il they took six. that she was being rob
Then there is the well-known case of
n
nome, but will never buy a paper unless
ne can beat down the boy who is selling
Il and get II at -price-after which ne
not intrequently presents him with a
quarter. IL one could lay bare the secret
motives and springs OF action exposed I'm
such cases, II would be curious to see
nov now Tar hablt, prejudice, and mania af-
rect each case. one woman. with a
| davenport stuffed full of writing-mate-
rlals, can't bear TO lend an envelope; an
| other draws the line at needless though
| more nAnkRf& n han fInt, ~
viii ever open, and bank-account that
lnsures her thousands more II she should
need them. one man will give his friend
| morse that costs $1,000, and begrudge him
| single ivory shirt-stud. Another will
| give q handsome dinner to twenty peoDle
mat Will cost him hundreds, and feel ii
IN aHllctlon to pay car-faTe. Still an
bther has been known TO buy a yacht
| provision 1t, sail around the world with H.
entertain successive sets of people on IL
| IN the handsomest style, and pay all his
| bills for these expenses with the most
pralseworthy regularity, except those for
black pepper. Bands to play ON board.
| bunting TO decorate the yards, expensive
suppers Tor any number of people, wines
/ Dy the dozen hampers, flowers enough to
MI the hugest conservatory, additional
servants, tons of coal, an extra launch
will all pass unnoticed. unchallenged; but
when II comes to pepper he makes notes
consults cook-books, summons cooks,
so much so that he has been known 10
nave nine of these Indispensable func-
tionaries in his employment in the courst
Of I'VE seasons. Unlike the Chevalier
| AaVler de st. Folk, sans six SOUS ct sans
souci. he makes himself miserable over
the minnow, and swallows the whales
without making a single face. He will
have pepper, but II must be got below the
market price all over the world, and must
be used as he uses it; that is, as If II
were gold-dust instead.
Shoes were the pet meanness of n dis
! tinguished English nobleman whose
ground-rents in London alone would have
shod all its Inhabitants for centuries Ia
come. 1t is related of him that he once
took his favorite pair in person to a cob
bier, and that after carefully examining
them the man said to him: II never saw
the like since I've been at the business
You are either the greatest pauper in
England, or the Marquis of -" Il am
the Marquis not the pauper,' said his
lordship. and, far from being offended
seemed greatly amused. To mount a new
pair of shoe-strings even, is pain and
GRIEF to him, and new pair of shoes
always brings on violent fit of govt, SC
vehemently, is he opposed to the sad ne
cessity of donning them at all.
There is Frenchman whose eccentric
ity in respect of a pet meanness is very
OFTEN commented upon In Paris; for
though he has model establishment anc
positively rolls In money. he can not
bear to use towels freely-his own or his
neighbors'. 1t is said that upon staying
at one of the old castles of Brittany fol-
a week he took his hostess aside private.
ly and showed her over three dozer
|
days. "All those, madame, l have saved,
he remarked, with great delight. 'Youl
servants put them In my room, It is true
but l and my wife have only used on,
between us. Servants are careless waste
full creatures: l return the rest"
The most amusing instance | can recall
of the effect of a suddenly acquired for,
tune upon a pet meanness is that told by
an English author about an old woman il
an almshouse who came into a million by
a Chancery decision that had been pend
Ing hundred years. She bought every
thing that money could buy-siks vel
vets, laces, furs, estates, carriages
horses. soi-distant friends even. Sh,
threw away her bank-notes upon every
thing imaginable. in kind of frenzy o
possession. But when it come to tea, sh,
suffered; she debated, she chartered, blu
never could make up her mind to buy anC
pay for, at any one time, more than
quarter of a pound of good black 30
hea." She would have felt beggared by
a pound of any tea at any price; 1t haC
always been so precious 10 her that sh,
had lost all sense of its intrinsic value
, Perhaps 1t represented to some extent tn,
bright unattainable. without which lif
, has no zest.