CHAPTEE III. 



THE PRINCIPAL TOOLS FOB FENCING. 



THE fencer comes, in order well arrayed, 



His little kit, and saw, with glittering blade, 



With piercing crowbar, spade and spud and rammer, 



With plumb-rule, line, and auger, axe and hammer, 



Not strewn in wild confusion in the track, 



But neat and clean, supported on the rack. 



308. It is a trite but usually true maxim, that "a workman 

 is known by the chips he makes and by the tools he uses. A 

 good workman, as a general rule, will not work with poor and 

 awkward tools, because it is bad policy. He knows that with 

 poor tools, he is required to exert much more physical strength in 

 doing a given job ; and that he makes little progress, and many 

 times cannot do a piece of work in any other than a very ineffi 

 cient manner. Some men always use poor tools. A good tool 

 of any kind, with them, is the exception and not the rule ; and if 

 they chance to get a good tool, it is of short duration, for it is 

 soon broken or stove up, or injured in some manner, so that it is 

 a poor one. On the contrary, other men will always keep their 

 tools good until they are worn out ; and one will seldom find a 

 poor tool in their possession. Good tools, many times, cost no 

 more than poor ones, in dollars and cents ; and the loss sustained 

 by using poor tools would often amount to more than enough, in 

 dollars and cents, to purchase good ones. It will not be denied 

 by the great majority of workmen, that a laborer will be able to 

 do twice as much in a given period of time, with less force and 

 fatigue to his powers, with a good tool than with a poor one ; and 

 many times the difference is even four or five times in favor of good 

 tools. The best of tools are often rendered no better than very 

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