The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-04-05
THE PAINT HABIT.
An Insiduous Vice That Attacks
and Then Controls Men.


and Then Controls Men.
OF all the vices to which the head of
family can be addicted, the paint
craze is probably the most devasta ting
in it's effect upon the mind, clothing
and purse.
Unlike drunkenness and playing on
brass instruments, it is vice which
can be practiced without publicity, and
this is doubtless one reason why it is
so awfully prevalent.
There seems to be something wonder
fully fascinating in the private paint
brush and the cans of prepared paint
that are extensively advertised as COM
bining the two-fold mission of preserv-
ing and beautifying objects upon which
applied.
The man who has once allowed him
self to paint the kitchen chairs or the
dog kennel takes a step which he can
rarely retrace. His thirst for paint
grows with indulgence. and he soon
comes to feel wretched unless he has a
brush in his hand
Among private painters there exists
a strange and morbid unwillingness to
allow a particle of paint to be wasted.
paint with which to paint table, and
finds that after the work is done he
has a quarter of a pound of paint left
instantly tries to find some other arti-
Gle Of furniture on which to use it.
Thus he is constantly led on from one
article of furniture to another, and re
duces himself to poverty, madness and
despair.
The story of a manrwho was once a
respectable and worthy 7ratepayer of an
adjoining municipality presents fear
full Illustration of the misery caused
by private painting. The man in ques-
ton was induced by an indiscreet friend
to- buy a. pound of red paint with which
to paint a small dog kennel. Without
rejecting upon the danger to which
every one who exposes himself who
takes the unhallowed paint-brush in
his hand, this main painted the dog
kennel and with the quarter of a pound
that was left undertook to paint the
bathtub-in order, as he told himself,
that the paint should not be wasted
He found that when the bathtub was
not more than half-painted his supply
of paint was exhausted, and he there
fore bought another can. With this he
finished the bathtub, and had this time
three quarters of a pound left.
1t was, of course, impossible for him
to allow so much paint to be wasted,
and, accordingly, he began to paint the
six kitchen chairs. There was enough
for five chairs only, and the wretched
man saw that he could not help buying
third pound, nearly all of which was
left after the sixth chair was finished.
With hungry eyes and an excited air
he now roamed through the house seek
ing what he might paint, and finally
decided to paint the woodwork of his
study. Two additional pounds were
used before the woodwork was fin
ished. but he found that in his anxiety
to finish the work without buying a
sixth can of red paint he had laid on
the paint so lightly in some places that
the result dissatisfied him.
AS a. remedy. he resolved to run a
narrow bar of black paint around each
panel. and. therefore, bought a pound
of the best prepared ivory black. Not
more than half of it had been used
when the work was finished, and it be-
came necessary to find something on
which to use the remainder.
# was too late to save himself that he
was a confirmed painter, and that he
had not sufficient strength of will to
cast the accursed paint-brush from
him, no matter if he did thereby waste
nearly a pound of ivory black He pur-
sued his downward course with great
rapidity. Needless of the tears OF his
wife and the entreaties of his daugh-
tiers. he painted everything in the house
on which a paint-brush could be laid.
His wife and daughters could not go
into the street without showing by
their Involuntary patches of black
naint that the head of their house
was private painter. His money
gradually found it's way into the pock-
ct of the storekeeper who sold the
paint, and his health eventually gave
way under the influence OF painters
colic.-Montreal Gazette.