Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1900-07-14

Economy lis Hardly an American
Virtup.

virfuc.
Kansas City Star: 1t is recorded
that it is the habit Of the teachers OF
Brussels to direct the school children
to bring with them to school such old
tin cans, pieces of tin foil, broken
metal and other scraps of waste
which they may find, and that the ac-
cumulations sell for enough to buy
clothing for a large number of chit
dren who would be unable to GO TO
school for want of it. 1t is quite pos
gible that the average American citi-
zen will receive this statement with
donbt and class it with the story told
| by Edward Everett Hale many years
ago, of the paper Man and the Rag
Woman" two young persons OF edn-
cation and refinement, who devel-
oped a talent for gathering waste pa
per and rags and who were thus en-
abled TO get married and live happily
ever afterward.
Vet, for all this incredulity the sum
OF what Is valueless and useless in the
world grows steadily less. The util.
ization of what was once wasted goes
steadily on. Nature gives a hint in
this regard in the indestructibility OF
matter, and in the fact That the decay
of many substances furnishes the
~sustenance for Others. The difficulty
with Americans is that the art OF
saving, OF gathering up the frag~
ments, Of making the most Of every
thing. is, as it were. limited. Com
pared with the mass OF the population
those who practice the art OF saving
arc very few. We arc prone TO look
upon tho person who calls upon ns Tor
/, rags, cast-or garments, and other
things which we are apt to regard as
OF little or no valuc-an impression
which the dealers are careful TO culti.
yate-as the poorest Of the poor, ant
/, almost objects of charity. They are
really engaged in n great and lucrn
tive business. The world eXpends mil
lions ON what has been once con
demncd as waste, refuse and odds ant
ends. The great end and aim OF mod
/ crn mechanical science is to save ant
r utilize what was once wasted n lost
} Gold is extracted from ore that one,
, went ON the dump, and SO on through
I countless industrial processes.
: The art of saving, in this country,
! confined to classes-in fact to thos
/ who arc in the business. No sue
preservation and utilization OF al
sorts of material is known in Ameri
can households as Is common and tn
y rule, for instance, i'm France and othe
2 European countries. Economy is hard
( ~ an American virtue.
The American answer to the cXhol
: tation to save Isl: 'Ne don't have tt
d In u country where all the comfort
q aud even luxuries are more general
y distributed than in any other, we d
need to resort to the strict economic
of old world life. We have all we nee
and occasionally we have corn {
a burn. 1t is not the custom of TIL
I great country TO watch, and measure
and estimate and save"
1T may be, however, that all tn
haphazard and careless theory an
< practice will sometime give wayandl
| changed under the ccascless eNamp
o and teaching of nature, which is ev'
saving; which makes Of the beds
a wild rushes of one era the coal
Il another; which shapes of no OF
knows what, or how, gold and sily,
and diamonds and hides them away
e rock or sand where man may fiji
C them; which takes millions of yea
s. i'm old trapper parlance, TO each
Z, things for the final benefit of livii
creatures. IT may be that man, lear
ing from tine great teacher, natui
viii sonc time use all that is comil
&c to him and waste nothing.