Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1921-09-29
The True and
False Thrift

! things TO use or dispOsing of then
where they can be made to do som,
sort Of duty. Those who sent cast-of
clothing 20 foreign lands lighteneC
their own burden as well as helped
others. Almost every afternoon last
summer, two boys Of but eight or ter
years would go through a certain
back alley. Each child had well.
filled old grimy bag slung over his
back and often the burdens were SC
great that the children would stag.
ger; one would rest among the tall
growth on a vacant lot, while, per-
haps, the other would run to the ice
cart that stopped on the corner and
satisfy his thirst from the drippings
Now and again they turned their
collections out in bare spot among
the weeds and re-arrange their loads
Such things were gathered as a rusty
hinge, a ragged stocking, a few feet
Of old telephone wire and somebody 5
scrub cloth, hung out to dry and car
ried SO far away by the wind as to
become legitimate spoil. The little
Junk collectors wendell their way to-
ward locality whore such things as
they garnered are turned into small
cash and they were forming the habit
Of seeing values in discarded articles
and putting them to some immediate
use.
Surely there is an art in knowing
how to throw away, for what to save
and what to destroy is wearing
problem to most housckcepers; some
times they solve it by allowing things
to accumulate. Sentiment is a great
assistant to encumbering one with
possessions that become a care, for
we deslike to throw away what re-
minds us Of happy days, and just as
much we hesitate to cast aside me-
mentoes Of sadness. Physicians say
that the saving of such things is
wearing to the nerves and that it
tends to age one who boards them
and looks them over often, brooding
over the past.
1t would seem that the early New
F,nglandCrs must have had an extra
commandment not found in their we'll
read Bibles. The admonition, Thou
shalt not waste was nearly as bind
ing to them as the command not to
steal or bear false witness, and those
whose line Of ancestry runs back to
Colonial days generally inherit NOR
tai fear that something they are
about to discard might sometime be
Of use to the family They are apt
20 cucumber their houses with more
or less material rubbish and they are
accused Of being somewhat prone to
keep up old habits and customs.
This inherited disposition to save,
when carried TO the border of miser-
illness takes from life much that
makes it worth while, and it has
tended to give the old-fashioned char
acter that pathetic quality which the
novelist portrays so successfully. A
woman must live to be about sixty
years old before she really can under
stand the folly Of boarding material
things. Her eyes are usually opened
to the truth Of this by the task of
clearing up and closing one or more
homes after death has claimed its
chief occupant. 1t is then that she
sees the uselessness Of trifling things
and realizes, with bitterness, perhaps,
that a scrap Of cloth or an old letter
outlives two or more generations of
human beings.
1t is true that sentiment often pre-
vents discarding the clothes, books
and other belongings, which are all
that we have left Of those who are no
longer in our earthly households. Yet
when we cling so closely to the half
worn garments, or bits Of handwork,
the question may we'll be asked what
would the owners of these
things have made, if life had been
spared? Would not memory be kept |
more sacredly by a little Of the best !
hat was typical Of their tastes or
skill rather than by boarding all that
vas left when they went home ?"
None Of US can reckon on the day
when another shall fold and put away
,ur graments and drop tears on cur
work, and if there is pre-
served in the home a large accumu-
alton Of such reminders, it is newt
able that some time careless hands
will scatter the good and the worth
ess with little thought.
Thrift and sentiment carried too far
vas illustrated, few years ago,
when a home occupied by one family
or several generations was broken up
~ the death of the last member and !
20 a stranger fell the task Of arrang-
ng the household effects for an auc-
ton sale,-that peculiar and some
what sad sort Of New England gath
ering, not quite gone out Of existence
The clearing up of the old garnet |
brought to light strange habits of
boarding. Garments that might have |
kept warm some poor man in the viii |
Iage, were riddled with mothes and
fell in Rip-Van-Winkle tatters when |
brought to light and air. Bundles of