The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-04-16
Improving the Old Home.

Returning TO his salt Lake home
after several years at college. Isaac at
once gave his best thought to the i'm
provement Of the old homestead He
decided to begin the glorious work in
his own room and began by purchasing
a can of floor paint and spreading most
Of the contents on the floor Of the room.
This was in the morning before he went
to the office for his days work. When
he reached home that evening he found
that the spirit of Improvement had
struck a small brother. The small
brother had used the remaining paint
to ornament an old trunk. He did the
work in Isaac's room, spreading
newspaper on the floor beneath the
trunk. When Isaac succeeded in re-
moving the newspaper the floor needed
repainting. He bought another can of
paint and painted the floor again, leav-.
ing his windows open to hasten the
drying of the paint. That afternoon
rainstCrm came up and Isaac's mother
snatChed a few moments from her
household duties to rush into Isaac's
room TO close the windows. Isaac bore
his second reverse philOsophically and
painted the floor a third time little
sister. who had not been advised of
Isaac's Improvement era, charged mad
" into the room to close the windows
when the rain came that day When
he reached home that night and learned
what had happened Isaac delivered
himself of an address that had the eff
feet of causing all members of the fam
lily to avoid the vicinity Of ISaac'S room
until the fourth coat Of paint dried.
Isaac next turned his attention to the
chicken coop and decided to have a
new one built. For this purpose he
bought an old adobe house and hauled
the adObeS to his home The team got
stuck and IT was 1890 that night when
Isaac and his load arrived. Next day
he persuaded a neighbor TO give him an
estimate on how much lime would be
needed to build the chicken coop. and
bought the stated quantity. Isaac de-
Cided to have the chicken house built
by day labor and hired two masons.
They used up what lime there was in
about twenty minutes and sat around
all day until Isaac got home in the
evening. The chicken coop was at
length built after much trouble. Isaac,
wearied by his day labor scheme made
up his mind to plaster the chicken coop
himself. He undertook TO mix the lime
IN the kitchen and poured a lot of
water into a bucket containing the
lime. Members of the family say the
effect was spectacular to a high degree.
Three days Of unceasing toll and pair
of hands lacerated in cruel manner We're
incidents To the plaStering of that coop.
But when the coon was completed
Isaac viewed IT with fond pride He
soon came to believe il was altogether
too elegant a structure 10 be occupied
by the ordinary run of fowls so he or
dered some fancy birds from Logan. He
purchased seven of them, paying 81. 50
for each one The chickens arrived in
Salt Lake last Wednesday. Isaac's
small brother was at the train to re-
ceive them. The boy carefully placed
the chickens i'm a sack. put the sack on
his shoulder and walked home with the
birds. Evidently the sack was too close
~ init for the purpose because the
chickens had all been smothered before
the house was reached.
Isaac has suspended improvements
temporarily. He admits that a college
education does not fit man to accom-
pliSh everything.