The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-08-27
He Tried to Explain the Lay

lessly mixed. But the trunks made ex-
cellent hitching posts and horses soon
learned not to eat the bark.
In the spring all lower New York was
gay with apple blossoms. and 1t was
discovered that il was improving to the
morals of business men to see so much
of beauty right in front of them all the
time. At first the police had hard
time restraining small boys from pick
ing the pretty flowers" but when they
understood that they would turn into
green apples in time, they were willing
to wait.
Along in May, Harry was waited upon
by a body of apple vendors, who told
him that their business would be gone
if the trees were allowed to bear fruit.
The leader said: we getta fiva cena
for de appla not wort half a centa. If
appla are free, where do we getta de
bread?"
Harry was in a quandary. He hated
to throw honest people out of work and
yet he felt sure that free apples would
be for the greater good of a greater
number than the highly polished fruit
of men who were anything but polished.
So he went to his father and the old
gentlemen got all the apple vendors
positions in the street cleaning depart
ment, and as they had had long eXper-
fence at polishing apples they. soon
made the paVements shine like granite.
The apples grew until they were the
size of plums. and then the street boys
thought that they were green enough
to eat, which showed that they were
greener themselves.
Harry happened to be out walking
with his father the night that they
came to this conclusion, and when he
saw a group of boys in each tree he
tried to explain the evil that lay in the
small verdant globes. but street urch-
ms do not care for polite argument
and they didn't recognize him as the
one who had made the city orchard
possible. but went on munching the
fruit.
Well, next morning there was such
an epidemic of doubled up small boys
that all the ambuiances in all the Dor
oughs from the Bronx to Richmond
were kept on the jump taking patients
to the hospitals. and the trees We're
visibly lightened of their fruit-to the
great grief of horses, who could no
longer reach them.
The afternoon papers looked like the
edition that follows the Fourth, with
long lines of names of boys who had
been seized with collie after partaking
of the insidious fruit.
his father told him that probably never
were so many small boys taught an
instructive lesson at once, and that he
felt repaid already for the cost the
trees had been to himself-and the city.
And Broadway and Wall street and
Maiden Lane and Fulton street became
such bowers! And the sparrows in
creased and multiplied until their twit-
terings drowned the other city noises.
There were no more sunstrokes because
the streets were so cool and shady that
no one was exposed to the fierce rays.
And as Harry took his walks abroad.
he could not help feeling that he was
a public benefactor.
And the sick boys all recovered. 1t
is only in story books that they sue
cumb to green apples, although it's a
wonder they can live through the or
deal. e.
Harry looked forward with pleasure
to the coming of August. Then the
fruit would be ripe, and it would look
pleasant to see people of all degrees,
millionaires and writers, clergymen
and lawyers. merchants and policemen.
walking along and reaching up to pluck