BROTHER GARDNER'S PHILOSOPHY.
'When a man axes me who libs nex' doab,' began the old man as the triangle Bounds to order, ' I answer him Brown, or Jones, or White, or whatever de name may be, but when he goes beyancl dat an' axes what salary de man aims, how often his ■wife changes bonnets, an' how dey make seben dollars a week go f urder dan I kin fo'teen, I became a clam. I has no business to know, an' when I do know I won't tell. I used to have some curiosity in dis direcshun, but I has got ober it of late y'ars. When I know dat a sartin man, receivin' a salary of twelve dollars per week, kin give parties, hire carriages, an' dress his •wife in Bilks, it makes me glum. Dat is, it used to. I used to wonder why I couldn't do de same thing on the same money, but I nebber could. When de ole woman used to tell mo dat- sartin women had new silks, new hats, new close, an' new shoes once a month de y'ar round, an' we havin' to lib clus on de same money, it made me mad. Dat is, it used to. When I saw men who owed fur deir washin' strutin' aroun' like lords, while I had to work days in a week an' pay my debts, I felt like smnshin' frew de sidewalk. ■But. I has got ober all dis. When I meet a
woman who kin dress like a banker's wife
on de ten or twelve dollahs per week paid .her husband, I doan' 'low myself to eben
fink about ifc. When I see a man buyin' twenty-cent cigars, spurtin' a cane, and takin''champagne, when his-chillen at home am bav'fut, I try h. ,>!:. re d.i it nm all right. When v lady wid tL/"t> hundred dollahs vvorf of ck'-e <>n, axe? :*•_ to do a job of whitewashin' in a parlor whav do picture come from a tea Flore, an' de bes' char am under chattel mortgage, I donnM; stop to wonder who she thinks she am foolin'. Nayburs ob mine, who owe all de butchers widin a circle of a mile, kin pay fo' dollahs cash fur a libery rig on Sunday, an' I shan't criticise. Wives may go ehopin' ebery day in the week, an' gin parties ebery night, an' ole woman will keep de cabin jist de same. Since wo quit wonderin' an' speculatin' ober dese fings we feel much better. We know fur a fact jist how fur we kin make money go. "If odder folk« kin lib like lords on a salary of six hut! !. : 3"! .!',i!h'hs v y'nr jt's n streak of good I'iek ;.'.' ii-..ih> u>" our bizmvs*. My advice to you am to let sich fings past. Dey are mysteries wid which we have no bizness, an' de mo' vow ponder obcr dem de less you will injoy what you have honestly aimed by had work an' saved by good economy.'—Detroit Free Press.
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Bibliographic details
Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3193, 22 September 1881, Page 4
Word Count
506BROTHER GARDNER'S PHILOSOPHY. Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3193, 22 September 1881, Page 4
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