Author: fitz

We have ſaid ſomething of moſt of the Tradeſmen employed by the Architect, except the Timber-Merchant; who is either employed by or furniſhes Materials to the Carpenter, and other Workmen under him. The Timber-Merchant properly, is the Importer of Timber from abroad in his own Bottoms: He is furniſhed with Deal from Norway, either in Logs or Planks; with Oak and Wainſcoat from Sweden; and ſome from the Counties in England; with Mahogany from Jamaica; with Wallnut-Tree from Spain. Theſe he ſells to the Carpenter, Joiner, and Cabinet-Maker at conſiderable Profit. It requires no very inconſiderable Stock to ſet up a Timber-Merchant; he muſt always have a large Stock by him in his Yards, and give conſiderable Credit to the Maſter-Builders.

A Merchant in this Way ought not only to be a Judge of Timber, but muſt know the Commodities that are to be ſent from hence to thoſe Countries from whence he has his Timber; though the balance of Trade with moſt of thoſe Places is againſt us, and we are obliged to remit the Difference between Value of the Goods they ſend us and thoſe we take from them in Bills of Exchange.
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George Hart was five years old when he went to stay some months at his uncle’s house. He was very glad to be with his cousins, for he liked good rough games of play, and he did not cry at a knock or a fall.

At home he had no one to play with him but his sister Mary, and she was quite a little thing, and if he had played roughly with her it would have hurt her. George was a good-natured boy, and he did not wish to hurt any one.

When he got to his uncle’s, he thought he should never be tired of all the nice toys and useful things that his cousins were so kind as to shew to him. In the house there was a long room called the workshop, in one part of which was a large bench with saws, hammers, nails, and all kinds of tools.
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I am going to tell you about a little boy who had scarlet fever, and about how he amused himself. He was quarantined in his own room for six weeks, yet he did not have a dull time, after all. He saw no one during those weeks but his father and mother and the doctor.

When Arthur was first taken sick and the doctor said that it was scarlet fever, every unnecessary article of furniture was removed from his room. His bed seemed very necessary, so that remained; also his bureau, washstand, a table, and two chairs. The carpet was taken away, as well as the book-case and all the books. The closet was emptied of all the clothes, and the drawers full of toys were stowed away in the attic.

When so many of his cherished belongings were gone Arthur thought it was a very queer-looking room, and the first time he sat up in bed and looked at the bare floor he said it seemed as if he were in prison.
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I criticized a carpenter working for me recently for using dull tools. He excused himself by saying that he had been too busy to sharpen them. He had been working for weeks with a dull saw, and with a plane which had notches in it, leaving ugly ridges on the boards he was planing.

He had probably wasted more time in working with dull tools than would have been required to sharpen them several times, to say nothing of the inferior work he was turning out.

There are multitudes of people who never do good work because they never prepare for it, never put themselves in a position to do good work—they never sharpened their tools; never trained themselves for it, and they go through life botching their jobs…

Orison Swett Marden

North Judson News – December 24, 1914

—Jeff Burks

A tall pine-tree had been cut down in the forest, and dragged away to a back yard, where it now lay chopped into blocks of wood for fuel, piled up on the top of one another. Near the yard, on the other side of the hedge, was a garden with a green lawn, and out amidst the foliage there peeped forth a charming villa, where a family from the neighbouring town were wont, during the summer months, to come to live, and inhale the balmy air and bask in the country sunshine.

During the long, dreary spring the wooden logs had plenty of time to reflect on their future, but the majority of them were agreed that there was not much to reflect upon, for the fate of a log of firewood was once for all decided, and could not be altered.
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