The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1902-02-27
BILL ARP'S LETTER
Grip has Let Up On Him and He
Feels Much Better.
GIVES Ills EXPERIENCE As A PATIENT
During Trying "ordea" He Was
Cheered BY Good Company and
Loving Attention Fron
the Children.

ing. 16Gl DeCt6f-a SOOQ zeal DeLLeE.
Think | Will write a verse or two of
poetry. II sick man has good sur
Touldings it beats medicine. Good,
cheerful company TO call and not stay
long-good children to sympathize and
watch the clock for medicine time,
good grandchildren to come and kiss
you and go to and from and talk and
make noise; a good wife to scold you
and tell how imprudent you have been,
and a good doctor to look at your
tongue and choke you with a spoon
handle so as to see away down the
esophagus. But nature has the best
OF medicines slowed away in the bless
ed sunshine that gives life and yigor
to everything animal and vegetable
and reviTes the dropping spirits Of the
sick. 1t has been long and hard win
ter-the coolest and most d.sagreeable
one hundred consecutive days that we
have had for years. How I envied the
good people of Florida while l read
Tom Sawyer's rhapsodies in the Clear
Water paper over the advent of spring
with its peach trees and yellow jes-
mine pertaining the balmy air with
their fragrant blossoms. But it is COM
ing-gentle spring is not far away now
and day like this Is its harbinger. If
1t were not for the daily catalogue of
horrible things that headline the daily
papers even q sick man could be calm
and serene on such day as this. An
aged country friend told me that he
had quit taking the daily papers, for
/. distressed him to read such things.
Il haven't long to live" said he, land
I don't wish to cloud my mind with
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 every thing that hap
pens. We can't skip the bad and read
the good only. There is a fascination
about horrible things that We cannot
resist. They are the first things we
look for. They excite our pity or our
indignation or our wonder Our child
hood began that way, for we never
tired Of Jack the Giant Killer and
Rawhead and Bloody Bones, and Rob
inson Crusoe. And now the editor of
the press dispatches carelessly look
over the little slips that are laid upoL
his desk and reads Another explosion
In the mines-one hundred killed."
Another railroad wreck-thirteen kill
ed" and then resumes the little anec-
dote that he was narrating to friend.
We are all growing case hardened to
pain and grief and suffering for the
same reason that the surgeon becomes
case hardened to the pain of his pa
tient.
But ever and anon some new horror
comes along that shocks humanity and
astounds the world. l read three long
columns last night about the horrors
of adulterated food in Paris and how
1850 infants died the last year from
poisoned milk. How the great incorpo-
rated dairy companies in the suburban
towns have to deliver 100000 quarts
every night. 1t is SKINNED before it
is canned and then is watered 20 per
cent before it is put on the cars. On
arrival at their depots it is delivered
in cans to 500 milk boys (garcons),
who get $1.40 a night and as much
more as they can make by watering
the milk from the hydrants that are
supplied from the river Seine, the filth
lest river in all France. One hundred
detectives are employed to watch
these boys, but the boys have detec-
tives. too, and are seldom caught or ar
rested. The superintendent of police
says it is impossible for one hundred
men to watch these eight hundred boys
and he now asks for two thousand.
This watered milk quickly sours and
by the time it is delivered to the re
taller at daybreak it has to be watered
again with solution of bicarbonate
of soda. This is the milk that supplies
all Paris, and is daily fed to infant
children and in a brief time they
take cholera infantum or diarrhoea
and die. The medical faculty all testi-
fed that this milk caused The death Of
over IS 600 infants in Paris in one year
and the mortality was on the increase,
and this does not include the deaths of
children over one year old. These
eight hundred boys are organized into
a powerful syndicate for protection
and defence. Each pays into their
treasury 81 week, making a total OF
$4,000 a month with which to pay
lawyers fees and fines and the wages
of those in jail and to bribe the city
detectives not to catch them when wa
tering the milk. They water 1t while
the wagons are on the go-pumping in
behind with cans of water. The milk
suspected is turned over to the city
chemist. who analyze and report, and
if the boys are arrested most Of them
escape punishment in some corrupt
way, but none are discharged They
go back at once into the company S