Norwich bulletin., 1917-10-26

| (1Vritten Specially for The Bulletin. l I haven't any certainty about how many times in the last few years we have quoted ill this column the Tolt | adage: You can't eat your cake ane have 1t, too. A good many times, anyway: per haps dozen or more 'It's one of those old sayings of the sort in which the English language is especially rich wherein have beer condensed into homely but striking phrase some bit of truth. accumulat- cd by thousands through long exper- fence, and thus boiled down. into a form which makes it. easy to com municate, simple to understand, and short enough tc remember.
 Put in the form of logical syllo- sism the idea would be something like this:-
 Major premise: Nothing can be pos sessed unless it exists in shape and form to be possessed:
 Minor premise: Anything which has I,een used mp. devoured, destroyed eoes not longer exist:
 Therefore; That which has been de- voured can no longer continue to be possessed.
 But who wants to go through a log ical demonstration to prove that which is self-p-oven by the very ut tera nee in such terse and hammer
 
 cake and have it. too?
 As an abstract matter, talking in general terms and addressing the uni verse in a sort of -impersonal way. rrobably every intelligent human be- ing on the globe will agree that the adage is exactly correct. and the fact it states is absolutely true.
 Furthermore. there will be practic- ally unanimous agreement that it's >riN true.
 For instance; You can't leave your shoe at the cobbier's to be mended and wear it while, he's mending it. Of course not.
 which has been burned out with the same bit of gingham which was burned. Of course not.
 You can't stand on your head with cut tipping yourself 'tother end to.
 You can't go fishin' all day and dig potatoes all the same day. Of course not
 You can't wear a last years dress after you've sold 1t to the junk man the paper mill has ground it up into pulp and made paper of it. Of course not.
 You can't pay double prices for
 
 for seed and bags for your pota to crop and get your money back unless you demand a double or triple price for thcU1. Of course not.
 You can't abandon the farm. let it's arable land grow up to weeds and bushes. move to the city and stay there, and still get home -mainta:p'ng crops off that abandoned and un- W orked farm. Of course not.
 All of these things and scores of o4H- will suggest. you and I and all the rest will unhesitatingly agree to. That is. we'll agrse to them as statements of abstract fact Butt
 When it comes right down to some particular thing that we particularly want on a particular occasion. nine if not eleven out of every ten of us act as if we expected that the universal law expressed in the old adage would ception made for our special individ- ual benefit.
 One quotes the saying: You can't eat your cake and have it, too" Whereupon both Jonesy and Mrs. Jonesy nod their heads affirmatively and chorus; 'wky, of course not"
 But when it comes to the particular pieces of cake in their particular hands at that particular moment, which particular. pieces they particu-
 
 chances are big that they'll eat the cake and twelve hours afterward be each other and the children ard the cook and most of the rest # the universe because they haven't got it., still.
 They'll especially and roundIy scoId he wheat-growers and the four nillers and the bankers because they arc required to pay such high prices "a la fo b,,x- Don't you believe it? Just listen a
 Less than -hundre edth of the measurable area of our neighboring great state of New York is occupied