New-York tribune., 1901-12-18
SAND IN LITTLE BAGS.
OBVIOUSLY A FORTUNE IN IT IF PEOPLE
WILL ONLY EAT IT.

Fortunate is that man who buy low and sell
high, and he who lead his fellow men to be
lieve that they need inexpensive thing which
he has sell is of like good fortune This
PREPARATION says the inventor in play. costs
two and one-half cents a bottle including the
bottle. and sells readily 81 a bottle And just
so the man who can take sand out OF the bottom OF
river boil it in a pot and sell it at the rate of %
cents for a little bag need not trouble himself
about gold bearing quartz worth any such trihe as
$500 ton. The best veins of quartz will run out,
but the rivers do not out. and there is always
sand at their bottoms-when they are that kind of
rivers-and even If you get no more than, say. 20
ton for it, it is merely picking up a fortune,
though the process may be little slower. Dia-
monds worth more ton than coal but the
deposits of coal larger, and the fortunes In II
are many.
And so the man out in St. Louis who has per
suaded seventy-fve others that their health de-
pends on drinking a teaspoonful OF sand mixed
with water every day is to be congratulated He
gets the sand out of the river The dispatches say
sterzes It. and sells 1t at the rate of . cents for
n little bag. SteriZing doubtless means boiling;
any rate. that ought to be enough, and the only
expenses would seem 10 be the dredging. the pot,
the fire and the bags. All tnat is wanted for the
accommodating of wealth is abundance of be-
levers
1t is not surprising that persons living in the
Mississippi Valley should be readily led to believe
that an abundant sediment in water is necessary
TO its wholesomenesa They usually find the water
of other regions pretty insipid stuff. The per
suasveness OF the Head Dirt Eater" he is
called must have been required chiefly to con-
vince them that they ought to buy his sand taken
out of the water. and put It back into the water
again instead of simply dipping up the gft Of
bountiful Nature 1t flowed past their doors.
The Head Dirt Eater argues that sand is need
ed article OF food, because birds eat it abundant
" and because the beasts of the field and the
serpents are not particular whether they eat it
or not AS for the birds. they eat sand or gravel
along with their other food. substitute for
ing animal is not necessarily TO be governed in
further proof is necessary that the needs of the
fowls are his needs. The serpents. according to
scripturaI record were commanded to eat dust
a punishment. not as means of health. and so
their example need not weigh heavily with men.
In the case of the beasts OF the field, which may
grub up little soil along with their other food If
the Head Dirt Eater prove anything by them
he commits the logical falacy of proving too much.
For if their way is to he followed the right one,
being the dictate of nature, then men should eat
unsteriIized earth. as the beasts do. and should
nick it up for himself wherever he finds 1t. they
do and then what becomes of the trade in sand
a. % cents a little Gag?
The present writer is bound to admit that in max
ing these observation he is moved by an
righteous envy He frankly longs to find
thing which he can get for nothing and sell p
cents Hetle bag-or a big bag-and his advice 10
the Head Dirt Eater is to bottle up the water
be mixed with the sand and sell that for 25 cents
z little bottle.