The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1903-07-18
J0BsON's ECONOMY.

1y, to Mrs. Jobson the other night,
as he came upstairs from the furnace
room, with stern countenance, will
you just drop that piece of ochre-hued
literature you are reading long enough
to step downstairs with me for halt a
moment? I have something desire
to show you."
Mrs. Jobson put down the book
which, by the way, far from being
ochre-hued, was no less classic than
Vanity Fair"-and followed Mr..
Jobson down the cellar steps.
"This," said Mr.. Jobson, sepulch-
rally, pointing to a pile of pretty
well-burnt-out looking ashes that the
servant had removed from the fur
mace during the previous couple of
weeks, "this is the sinful, the shame
full, the scandalous sight which l de-
sire to show to you. In that pile
there are at the very smallest compu-
tation two long tons Of combustible
fuel. It looks to me as if unburnt
furnace coal had been deliberately
chucked by the bucketful onto that
pile out of mere wantonness. And yet
tomorrow or the next day you will be
hauling a black man off the street
and paying him four or five dollars
day to clean out this cellar, and
he will take this $12 or SIS worth of
good fuel out and sift it, and, as
likely as not, sell it along the alley on
which he resides for a considerable
sum of money"
"Those ashes don't look very rich
in fuel to me-" remarked Mrs. Job
son, taking poker and poking at the
pile. "This furnace is an economical
burner, you know, and"
Economical burner, hey?" broke
in Mr.. Jobson, ironically. "This
furnace, madam, has been making
gigantic effort for the past five or
si8.syears t.. send raAA ltea thA.i .inNe!
Economical burner? If can't spend
half day in shifting those ashes pro-
itable enough to win out of the pile
enough coal to be worth a good suit
of clothes I'll eat them. I'm going
to spend that half day in such en-
ployment, if for no other reason than
to convince you that you are directly
responsible for the poverty which is
swiftly overtaking me at a time of life
when I am entitled to be released
from such strain"
81 know of colored boy who has
his own sitter who would perhaps be
willing to do this sitting work for
ten or fifteen cents,' said Mrs. job
son. "That would save you the un-
pleasant work"
''I'm not afraid of unpleasant
work when there is a principal at
stake" haughtily answered Mr.. Job
son. eff this colored boy you so
glibly talk of were permitted to un-
dertake the job you'd probably bribe
him to carry the fuel product of that
pile of ashes out of the cellar for no
other purpose than to fool me up as
to the amount of frst-rate combusti-
BILE material it contains. I'll buy a
sitter tomorrow morning right after
breakfast and go at that job, and if
I don't get enough unburnt coal out
of that mass to keep this house warm
for almost the rest of the winter
there'll be something queer about it,
that's all.'
Mr.. Jobson did return home with
a big ash sitter about half an hour
after his departure on the following
morning, and, ostentatiously dressing
himself out in his working suit, he
went below to the cellar to separate
two long tons of unburnt black dia-
monds from about half ton of pow.
derry ashes.
He dumped the apples out of the
newly bought barrel so as to use it as
a receptacle for the ashes and went tc
work with his nice, new, lorg-han'
died sitter. A few grayish clinkers
were all that remained in the bottom
Of the sitter after the first try-out.
"That's only the surface stuff
haven't got into the pay ore yet, =
growled Mr.. Jobson to himself as he
solmnly dumped the sifter-savet
"combustible full into corner oi
the cellar, and he loaded the sitter uI
once more. He so overloaded the
sitter that when he lifted it up to re-
slime operations over the barrel the
handle broke off close to the body o.
the contraption, and the ashes fell al
over his legs and feet and the dust
started him off on such fit of cough
ing that he had to rush for the cellar
sink for a drink of water to clear his
throat.
He sat down in the dark cellar fol
slight rest, and then he grasped the
sides of the sitter after having labor
iously and pantingly loaded it III
again, and started to work the thing
that way. He hadn't been at th'
system more than two minutes before
he began to feel the blisters rising OF
his palms. He probably would no
have minded the blisters so much haC
he been able to see that he was &C
complishing anything and. making
good on his prediction to Mrs. Jobsol
that when he got through sitting tn
cellar would be piled up with redeem
ed coal. The ashes dropped through
the sitter as if they were so mucl
water, and when Mr.. Jobson saw hov
things were going with his scheme b
began to glare around viciously. II
worked at his self-appointed task 70
more than two hours, and when b