Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 October 1859 — Meanness Illustrated. [ARTICLE]

Meanness Illustrated.

The following interesting anecdote is published as true: A man having a large family found it rather hard to keep up his table,and has adopted plan: At evening, just before supper, he calls bis children round him, and addresses them thus: “Who’ll take a cent and do without his supper?” “I! I! l!” exclaim the children eager to get the prize. The old man pulls out a pocket-book full of red cents, which he keeps for the occasion, and after giving them one apiece, sends them off to bed. Next morning they looked like starved Arabs. The old man again calls them round him, and with an air of gravity asks: “Who’ll give a cent to have a nice warm biscuit for breakfast?” It is needless to say the stingy old curmugeon gets his coppers all back again.