Perth Amboy evening news., 1912-07-15
PUBLIC OPINION
Editor aoaw>rTNG. u

Editor
Matt s-r-W 0'
Immensely pleased to find on
my side porch yesterday a market
basket containing some useful articles
Of pure food and household stuff, which
at first, l took to be a welcome dona-
tion from "The Day Nursery whose
name appeared on a tag appended to
the handle. In it were several cans of
tomatoes and pork and beans, boxes OF
cereal, jars of jelly, cakes Of soap, etc,
all Of which, barring the jelly, would
be quite acceptable. Closer inspection
of the tag, however, forced upon me the
conclusion that they were donations
solicited by the Nursery for the use
or consumption Of its inmates, and not
intended for me at all. This discovery
naturally robbed the incident of much
of its human interest. I doubt whether
Doctor Wiley would recommend even
the best and purest canned tomatoes
and pork and beans cs q diet for in
fants in warm weather, but who knows
but that babies may thrive on them. 1t
is not for me to say. l never was a
mother. But I digress.
On the back Of tho tag appeared this
legend with the following modest re-
quest: "Kindly pass the basket" (pre-
sumably with its contents and possible
additions) ''to your neighbor. 1t will
be called for today at 2 P. m, at the
last house on the bloek'-in which d.
~rection the legend failed to state.
The basket and its contents weighed
about twelve pounds. The mercury
stood at Sc degrees Fahrenheit. The
percentage of humidity was about 90
cav, dorm the Day Nursery"
says, just like that. "Darn the Day
Nurseryi' I SAYS. "They must have a
Move tn see EN- all in Bally'
hack" I says, "before IN bother with
their old basket! ia look pretty
wouldn't I now, leaving q dainty
lunch-I mean a day nursery-basket,
with a request like that, on the porch
of a neighbor who had never done me
any harm.
But o sober second thought it seem
cd almost a pity to let those %omnivorous
kids suffer for lack of a few simple
delicatessen, so I wrote an order on
local grocer, In favor of the Nursery
for some canned lobster, a allon OF
sauerkraut, half q peek of cucumbers
two or three pounds of sweitzerkase
and having deposited it in the basket
along with the other infant food
sneaked it over next door and left /
on the porch of my neighbor on tn,
north.
But I want to say to those babies
right now, that this is the very las
time III do it. Their method is not tt
be eommended-espeeially in hot ant
humid weather-and they will ge
themselves disliked the first thing the.
know. 1t smacks 90 much of tina
abominable Endless Prayer Chain, ,
business, which I was hoping had dice
a violent death-but it seems to hav'
survived. Some three weeks ago I re
ceived by mail a copy Of an alleget
s'Ancient Prayer" All I had to d
was to make nine copies Of 1t and mai
them to nine persons within nine days
Should I do so / was to ~"experienc'
some great blessings not unusua
experience with many Of US, for which
I trust, our hearts are unfeignedl.
thankful. Should I fail to carry out tn
programme l would be "visited b,
some misfortune" Well, tina cidn
seem to scare me much, and the pre-
cious document went into a handy re
eepticle for literary matter which ha
outlived it's usefulness. But I an
rather sorry that I didn't put it il
that market-basket.
J.. L. K,
P. S.-By the way, that bad luck dit
happen to me, after all. On or abou
the fatal ninth day I cut a finger
bumped a shin and broke a tumbler
Honest, I did.
N. B.-They were all mine.
High ST., July IL, 1919.