The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1900-07-14
the ART oF savIka.
Economy IsSHardsy IN Amerleau
Virtue. ssse slEASSs

ECONOMY u STaHaExt9yS an Au1erloan
Virtue. 8NS II
Kansas City Star: II is recorded
that Il ID the habit Of Sthe teachers of
Drussels TO direct the school children
TO bring with them 70 school such old
tin cans, pieces OF tin foil, broken
metal and other scraps OF waste
which they may find, and TINT the ne
foundations sell for enough to buy
clothing for q large number of chill
Idren; who would be unable to go to
school for want of it. 1T Is quite pos
Ssible that the average American citi-
zen will receive this statement with
doubt and class IL 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 deyel-
oped q talent for gathering waste pa
per and rags and who were thus ems
abled to get married and live happily
ever afterward.
Yet, 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
oSSN0AA 9Ohs 4dSuIo gives JuHD III
this regard in the indestructibility of
matter, and in the fact TINT 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-
lnents, of making the most of every
thing. Is, as it yer limited. Com
pared with the mass of the population
those who practice the art Of saving
are very few. We are prone to look
upon the person who calls upon Is for
rags, cast-oh garments, and other
things which we are apt to regard as
of little or no value-an impression
which the dealers are careful to culti-
vate-as the poorest of the poor, and
almost objects of charity. They are
really engaged in n great and lucra-
tive business. The world expends mill
lions on what has been nee con
demned MS waste, refuse and odds and
ends. The great end and aim of mod
ern mechanical science is to save and
utilize what was once wasted and lost.
Gold is extracted from ore that once
went on the dump. and % on through
countless industrial processes.
s The art of saving, in this country, is
confined to classes-in fact to those
who are in the business. No such
preservation and utilization of all
sorts of material is known in Ameri-
n households as is common and the
rule, for instance. in France and other
European countries. Economy is hard
ly an American virtue.
The American answer to the exhor-
tation to save is: 'We don't have to.
In a country where all the comforts
and = Injuries are more generally
distributed than in any other, we do
need to resort to the strict economies
of old world life. We have all we need
and occasionally we have corn to
burn. 1t is not the custom of this
great country to watch. and measure,
and estimate and save"
1t may be, however, that all this
%haphazard and careless theory and
practice will sometime give wayandb be
changed under the ccaseless example
and teaching of nature. which is ever
saving; which makes of the beds of
wild rushes of one era the coal of
another; which shapes of no one
knows what, or how, gold and silver
and diamonds and hides them away in
rock Or sand where man may find
them: which takes millions of years
in old trapper parlance, to "cache"
things for the final benefit of living
creatures. 1t may be that man, learn
ing from the great teacher, nature,
will some time use all that is coming
to him and waste nothing.