The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-05-22
ECONOMICAL BOWSER.
He Is Always Looking Out to Save
q Dollar.

Mr.. Bowser intended to perform a
performance.
He had been thinking of it all the
afternoon.
He might as we'll lead up to 1t soft
ser for it.
He therefore threw away the stump
CT his cigar and said:
"Green was telling me today that
he never fixes anything around the
house."
MOP" replied Mrs. Bowser.
He can't putty a pane of glass"
Il see.''
Nor fix a door knob"
But you know"
Yes, 1 can fix anything, and there
by save several hundred dollars a
year"
But there's nothing to fix just
now"
done except that am going to save
a hundred dollars in cash and in
dulge in little beneficial exercise at
the same time" he replied.
You are not going Toto tear any
of the walls down or remove the roof
of the house,"
mo, maam. Our house is heated
by furnace. That furnace naturally
has a smoke-pipe. That smoke-pipe
must be cleaned out before we start
fire this fall
But why don't you get man to
do it?''
For several reasons. First, L need
the physical exercise. Second, 1 don't
propose 20 pay no slovenian a hun
dred dollars to come up here and fool
around for four weeks over what will
take me about twenty minutes. Third
1y, and lastly, 1 am a domestic man
and like to be doing little odd jobs
around my own house..
"Mr. Bowser. please don't do it,
gasped Mrs. Bowser, as she turned
pale. you'll get the pipe apart and
then-and then
And then clean out barrel or two
of SCOT and put it together again." he
finished. I'm going to slip on my old
clothes and have the job over in half
an hour. You just sit down with the
sound
IF you'll let it alone I'll get a man
and pay him out of my weekly al
1owance, she called to him as he
was half way up the stairs.
Half an hour-easy as rolling off a
Iog-save a hundred dollars-sit right
down." he replied as he disappeared.
Ten minutes later he came down
with an old suit on, and he had in his
hands a gim1et, screw-driver,
monkey-wrench, a hammer, a cold
chisel, a pot of glue, a glass cutter and
a coil of wire.
"Why not let it go until November"
she asked as he was ready to go down,
and planning to get some one next day.
"And let a cold wave catch us and
freeze all the water pipes!' he ex-
claimed in answer.
mo danger"
Mrs. Bowser, you sit right down
and don't worry. 1 was cleaning out
smoke-pipes before you were born,
and there's nothing in this job to get
excited over
He had scarcely disappeared down
cellar when Mrs. Bowser went to her
room upstairs and locked the door.
Mr.. Bowser lighted up the cellar and
took a good look at that smokepipe. 1t
was twenty feet long, with one end at
the furnace and the other in the CHM
ney, and was supported at intervals by
wires attached to the ceiling.
''Save just a hundred dollars and
have all the physical exercise to boot!'
he muttered, as he began at the wires.
There are men who run to the
whenever a little job wants to be done,
and there are other men who save
time and money by taking a hand
themselves. The idea of my getting a
man to putter around here for
month or six weekSi"
When the wires had been loosened
Mr.. Bowser knew just what to do next
and he did it. He pulled the end of
the pipe out of the chimney. AS soon
as that had been done the five or six
and he was instantly enveloped in a
cloud of SCOT and ashes. AS the joints
fell one of them struck his foot and
he made a jump to evade the SCOT he
stumbled over another and came
down on the hard bottom of the eel
lar and rolled over on his back.
''WomanI 1 see how it ISL he yell
ed out in his first surprise. but the
words were hardly uttered before he
got up and rubbed his knees and ell
bows and the back of his head and
whispered to himself:
Its all right-alI right. I intend
ed to take the joints apart anyhow,
and this has saved me lot of trouble.
1t would have taken slovenian just
two weeks to do what 1 have done in
ten minutes. It's a wonder the old
lady isn't down here to ask if there
has been an earthquakei
Mr.. Bowser cautiously picked up
each Joint CT the pipe and played
tattoo on it with a hammer. That's
the proper way to clean 'em, and he
did as well as a slovenian could have
done. When a smoke-pipe has been
taken apart it must be put together
again to be made useful. Fully real
izing this fact, Mr.. Bowser began
work He picked up two joints and
fitted them together. No, he didn't.
To his surprise they wouldn't fit.
They were made to fit, had fitted and
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