La Junta tribune., 1905-04-01
soasow,se ns,emsoas.

T often written about, and with your
permission will endeavor to make
a few pertinent observations anent
my personal experiences. Borrow
ing what? Everything from the
Great Family Journal to your tele-
phone. How many dear readers OF
our home paper come home after a
hard days work, SIT down IN the
quiet of their family circle. after
the evening meal, and ask the dear
wife for the Great Family Journal.
only 10 be told Why. Mrs. So-and-
So borrowed it," There happened
/ to be an announcement in that par
/ ticular issue of our neighbors' 5
friend from the east visiting her. or
perhaps our dear neighbor had just
returned from a shopping tour To
, Pueblo or Denver. and the startling
fact was chronicled in the paper.
Then We have the systematic bor-
rover. The grocer pays his order
man $50 per month to get up early
and take orders from his customers
but We find that before 8 O'Clock
our neighbor is over to borrow a
cake of laundry soap. She knew
she was out, but the habit of bor-
rowing and perhaps never paying
back is in vogue in this household.
Borrowing seems 10 be a fad. second
nature or hereditary disease with
some people.
Not long since a lady friend who
was greatly annoyed by her borrow
ing neighbors remarked to the
writer that she had at last found a
/ remedy for the disease. A family
lived near by who were persistently.
continually and always borrowing.
Her husband bought an exceptional
iy good watch dog. who made a
business of thoroughly investigating
every person who entered the yard.
Her neighbors have never borrowed
since.
I Recently a railroad man came in
off the road after twenty hour
continuous trip on drag. work
ing like slave TO get in and get
some much needed rest He had en-
joyed about five hours out of the
eight he had called for at the round
house when he came in. when bang
went the doorbell. Thinking it
might be the ''call boy" ne bounces
out of bed in his pajamas. goes to
the doar and pulls the blind TO one
side only to find that il is his neigh
bor's wife. He scuttles back to the
kitchen and tells his wife that Mrs.
So-and-So is at the front door. No
more sleep for him. The above
mentioned neighbor wanted To bor-
row the Great Family Journal. She
had heard that one Of our leading
merchants had new advertisement
in that issue offering some great
bargains.
A friend of the writer who was
recently relating his experience with
his borrowing neighbors to a gang
of railroad men, told the following
tale. He. too. had just come in
after a long. hard trip, and was
comfortably fixed in Sunderland,
when "zing. zing" went the tele-
phone bell. He rubs his eyes and
crawls out to answer hurry call. y
and this is what he gets: Please
wont you call Mrs. So-and-So:
would like to talk with her." Well.
the result was he learned that his
borrowing neighbor wanted to tell
her friend that her dear hubby had
been placed on one of the city tick
cts BY the vacancy committee, and
she did hope he would be elected.
No wonder the telephone company
uses nickle in the slot machines.
Last. but not least. not long ago
one of our borrowing neighbors
gave a swell social function. She
had FIVE or six electric light drops in
her house but only two globes. She
must have her house lighted from
porch to kitchen. so she started out
borrowing. No wonder Brother
Bentley's light company pays out 50
much for coal.
Dear readers. do a little mission
AIRY work. Try to induce your bor-
rowing neighbors to subscribe for
their home papers and the great
dailies. patronize home merchants
and quit borrowing. Some of our
borrowing friends will probable de-
clare that the sentiments of this
screed are the rawlings of
CRANK.