Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 March 1891 — Sponge. [ARTICLE]

Sponge.

We don’t mean those sponges that grow “in tho bottom of the sea,” and which afford food for much scientifio ■peculation, as to whether they are animal or vegetable. No, the sponges of which we mean to complain are distinctly animal, and are of both sexes. We all suffer from them, bores and sponges are necessary evils, we suppose, but not any more to bo admired for all that. Editors could a tale unfold of the way some people get their advertising done for nothing, and lawyers < ould tell , of tons of legal advice given by them Without receiving t esl gb < st acknowledgment, pecuniary or otherwise. Doctors, also, are the victims of these questioners. Generally it is on ly the younger membe rs of these professions who suffer. Men old in the tricks of these friendly sponges manage to e\ade them, but the young (alMowJawyer, or doctor though lie knoiterbe i&feeing defrauded, has not the coqi‘S&& to cut short the confidential tv saying that he hopes to make by receiving pay for that which his friend expects to get for the asking:' No one expects a carpenter, blacksmith, jeweler, or any one who plies a trade, to do the smallest job for nothing, and yet those who willingly pay for such labor seem to think they have done nothing of which to be ashamed if they “manage” to get legal or medical advice without having to pay for it. And among women the fault is as Eeat. We have heard women boast of lowing “all kinds of fancy work and never paid a cent for lessons.” Their desire to learn fancy work was greater than their delicacy of feeling. Women who make their living by dress-making, milline v, teachr.g fancy work, or painting, are daily imposed upon by friends and strangers who come to them for suggestions and advice about material, shades, designs, and patterns—defrauding the worker of hours of valuable time without a l!fc ought of paying for the advice given, and often do not even thank the person for the suggestion which she has spent time and money in acquiring. Strange to say, these sponges arc ©ftenest found among those who could well afford to pay for what they want} and stranger still is the fact that they would resent, with the greatest indig* nation, a refusal to oblige them, or an intimation that they were taking ad* vantage es another’s politeness, and thus getting for nothing that which the giver has a right to expect something more substantial for than mere thanks. Minnie W. Armstrong, m SI Louie Magazine.