in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D.C.
How to Become an Inventor.
Nothing is more useful to a youth than to be able to do a little
carpentering. To be handy with a chisel and saw, a nail and a hammer,
saves many a dollar in the course of the year. If you call in a
carpenter for a little work he is sure to spin out a “regular job.” I
remember once buying some oak saplings, which cost me fifteen cents
a stick; and wanting to build a summer-house, I required eight of
them to be sawn through, so I applied to a carpenter, and the sticks
were cut, but, to my astonishment, four dollars was charged for this
little “job,” although the wood cost me only one dollar and thirty
cents. I found out afterwards that the proper price for sawing would
have amounted to about one dollar, so that three dollars profit was
clapped on for the benefit of my experience. I just mention this to
show my young friends that if they wish to make summer-houses for their
gardens, cages for their birds, fowl-houses, rabbit-hutches, or boxes
for their books, they must learn to make them for themselves. I shall
therefore offer them a little advice upon “carpentering.”