ECONOMY THE ROAD TO WEALTH.
A lady down in Smith street read somewhere that economy was the sure road to wealth, and, hearing that the gas bill was enormous, felt the gas might be economized by turning it off at the meter every morning, so that it would not waste through the brackets, This she did, intending to regulate it in the evening. She went to see her mother however, and Biggins, having returned about eight o'clock p m., turned up the jet and struck a match. Nursing it carefully with ins hand he placed it to the bracket. Pshaw! it went out; another, and still it would not light. He thought the infernal thing must be broken, and, going into the next room fell over-a chair and smashed his face. He tried it until his matches were all gone, and then, feeling on the mantel for more, turned over his wife's oil perfume bottle, and knew it was running on his coat. He swore and started down stairs, and just in the hall met Maria returning with tho children. " Biggins, why is there no light in the house ?"
He endeavored to explain; but no uso. He was foolish. The gas would light if he only tried ; and she marched into the parlor, her dress catching in the cabinet of Chinese curiosities, and it falling with a crash. She tried, and in vain, for, besides spoiling hot best silk, she trod on the child with boils, and smashed her best bonnet, when, lo ! she remembered what was the matter.
She would sooner have stepped into her coffin than to the meter, and she tried to do it quietly, but Ciggino caw her; and from that clay to this when she talk of economy he quietly sniggers, " Save from the gas bill." Her silk dress, her best bonnet, and Chinese relics were nothing, she whispered to her bosom friends ; but to have Biggins once know he was right, it "is too much," and she always burst into tears.—' N. O. Picayune.'
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Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1156, 6 March 1874, Page 4
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340ECONOMY THE ROAD TO WEALTH. Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1156, 6 March 1874, Page 4
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