Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 218, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 September 1911 — Advice is Dirt Cheap [ARTICLE]

Advice is Dirt Cheap

FAR be it from me to butt into another man’s business,” said Beeson to his neighbor “but I have been watching yoji spoiling good lumber for an hour and I can’t foelp saying that you don’t know how to make a wheelbarrow. Your intentions are all right, of and you may be able to make a windmill or a sawhorse, but when it comes to making a wheelbarrow you don’t stack up more than an inch high. “Now, if there’s one branch of industry in which I excel, it’s making wheelbarrows. I studied the difficult art under the great German and Italian masters and I believe in the general diffusion of knowledge. 1 say a man is a criminal who buries some valuable secret in bis breast, instead of making it public for the benefit of his fellow men. Although I gained my knowledge in a hard school, Ido not want to hoard it. I’m always glad to stow a man how to make a wheelbar.ow.” “I don’t want to make a wheelbarrow,” replied Jagway, sourly, still pounding away at the dog kennel he was builaing. “When I want any information from you I’ll ask you for it.”

“That’s always the way” said Beeson. “The man who really / is public spirited never is appreciated. He goes around trying to do good and people sass him and tell him to saturate his head. There was old Galileo, who inf vented a telescope or a clothes or something of that sort. What did they do to him? Did they give him a pearl handled umbrella or a gold headed cane? No sir,, they jammed him into a nasty dungeon away unde: ground and fed him on prunes and rye bread, and the school children pestered him with their bean .shooters through the barred windows of his cage. “Then there was Christopher Columbus. He was 1 man with a great idea. He took ' cold storage ege which was so strong that, it stood on end, and he reasoned that there must be a continent away beyond the jumping off place, apd he hired a steam launch or some cheap vessel and went and discovered it. What did they do to Columbu:?’’ “I don’t care a red Cent what they did to him. I wish you wouldn’t .both, or me. Don’t you see I’m busy?" v

“Yes, you’re busy in a misguided way. Eveiything you have been doing is wrong. If you want to make a wheelbarrow you must start rigfyt. You should select a couple of good pieces of ash for the handles. Some people say that . hickory is just as good, but it isn’t. Hickory will warp and twist until it looks like a corkscrew. The way you’re making that wheelbarrow is a disgrace.” “It isn’t a wheelbarrow, dad burn it! When I want a wheelbarrow I’ll go to the store and buy one.” “Well, if you’re not trying to make a wheelbarrow, you must be trying to make a cradle, and I can be useful to you there, too. If there’s anything I’m proud’ of it’s my skill In making cradles. I did nothing else for thirty years and I always want to be neighborly and give people the benefit of the knowledge. There’s a right way and a wrong way to make a cradle, and you’re taking the wrong way. There’s nothing more exasperating than a badly made cradle. “Mrs. Flinders, whq lives down the street a little way, had a great time with her youngest child. The infant seemed too fretful for any good use. It was yelling and sending in riot calls all day and all night, and the poor woman couldn’t get any sleep. I stepped into her house one day and saw at a glance what was the matter. That unfortunate child’s cradle was alt wapper jawed. An India rubber baby couldn’t sleep In it. I took that cradle home and rebuilt it on scientific lines and the baby slept so soundly in It that Mrs. Flipdera had to pour Ice water over the young one the next morning to wake it. Now” But Jagway had taken his tools and departed.