The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-02-25

This il a bright and blessed morning.
feel better-a good deal better. Think !
will write a verse or two OF poetry. IL 4
sick man has good surroundings 1T beats
medicine. Coco, cheerful company 10 cali
and not stay Iong-good children TO sym
pathize and watch the clock for medicine
time, good grandchildren TO come and KISS
you and 20 TO and fro and talk and maze
o noise: 4 good wife TO scoid you and tell
how ~imprudent you have been, and . good
doctor TO look at your tongue and choke
you with a spoon handle 60 IS 10 see
away down the esoDhagus. But nature
has the best OF medicines slowed away IN
the blessed sunshine that gives life and
yigor TO everything animal and vesetaoie
and revives the dropping spirits o. the
SICK. 1t has been a long and hard WIN
ter-the coolest and most disagreeable
one hundred consecutive days that We
have had for years. How l envied the
good people OF Florida while | read Tom
SAVERS rhapsodies in the Clear Water
paper over the advent OF spring With Its
peach trees ana yellow jessamine per-
t'AljliiE ~ tNAh 49, 49, Nit'A
blossoms. But it is coming. Gentle
spring is not far away now and a day like
this is its harbinger. Ii il were not for
the daily catalogue OF horrible things
that headline the daily papers even a sick
man could bc calm aud serene on such n
day as this. An aged country friend told
ne that he had quit taking the daily pa
pers for ii distressed him TO read such
things. Il haven't long to i've" said he.
and / don't wish TO cloud my mind With
4 daily record of human misery" But
most all people have to mix up with the
affairs OF nations and of Men and Keep
posted about everything that happens.
We can't skip the bad ana read the good
only. There is a fascination about hor-
rible things that we cannot resist. They
are the first things We look for. They
excite our pity or our Indignation or our
wonder. Our childhood began that way
for We never tired Of Jack the Giant
Killer and Raw Head and Bloody Bones
and Robinson Crusoe. And now the edi-
tor Of the press dispatches carelessly
looks over .he little slips that are laid
upon his desk and reads Another explo-
sion in the mines-one hundred killed.
Another railroad wreck-thirteeE
killed." and then resumes the little anec-
y uc q dtius ~ Il j ~ No
are all growing case hardened 10 pain
and grief and suffering for the same rea-
son that the surgeon becomes case hard
ened 10 the pain Of his patient.
But ever and ano some new horror
comes along that shocks humanity and
astOuEds the world. | read three long
columns last night about the horrors OF
adulterated food in Paris and how $500
infants died the last year from poisoned
milk. How the great incorporated dairy
companies in the suburban towns have to
deliver 500, 900 quarts every night. 1t is
SKINNED before ii is canned and then is
watered 20 per cent before it is put Oh
the cars. On arrival at their depots it
is delivered in cans TO 500 milk boys
(~garconS), who get $40 a night and as
much more as they can make by water
ing the milk from the MIGRANTS that are
supplied from the river Seine, the tilthiest
river in all France One hundred detec-
tives are employed TO watch these boys
but the boys have detectives, too. and
are seldom caught or arrested. The SUI
p~erintendent OF police says ii is impossi-
Bile for Ons, hundred men to follow and
watch eight hundred boys and he now
asks for two thousand. This waterel
milk quickly sours and by the time 1t is
QcllNeIeU 10 inc retailer AT udyOTSdk 1t
has 20 be watered again with q solution
OF bicarbonate of soda. This is the milk
that supplies all Paris, and is daily FED
10 infant children and In a brief time they
take cholera infantum or diarrhoea and
die. The medical faculty all testified
that this milk caused the death of over
$4,000 infants IL Paris in one year and
the mortality was on the i~~~~"e~ -
this does not include the deaths Of chlIs
dren over one year old. These eight
hundred boys are organized into a pow~
erful syndicate for protection and de-
fence. Each pays into their treasury 81
a week, making a total of $14, 900 a month
with which TO pay lawyers fees and fines
ana the wages Of those III Jail and &c
bride the city detectives not to catch
them when watering the milk. They
water it while the wagons are on the go
pumping in behind with cans OF water.
The milk suspected is turned over to the
city chemists, who analyze and report and
II the boys are arrested most of them
escape punishment in some corrupt way,
but none are discharged. They go back
at once into the companv's service. Bur
Paris is aroused as II never has been
and declares the death-deaiing business
shall be broken up il it takes two thou