The Little River news., 1922-06-21
THE ICE MANS TROUBLES

hasn't shown up? Have you reflected On his sorry lot-beginning work a 4:3 o'clock in the morning, listening to every kind of complaint, taking tn, meat, lettuce and tomatoes out of g. per cent of the refrigerators he visits and knocking off along about the mid dle of the afternoon with the swee consciousness that he has nothing tt do till tomorrow?'
 Maybe it would be worth your while to devote few moments to a carefu consideration of his problems-ths problems of probably the most car. tooned. Iampooned and misunder. stood individual in the community Looked upon not only as the object of jest, but as an outright "highbind- CT" and crook, his case is worthy of being presented. :.
 For after all he is but human, and trying to give you the best service possible. All he asks is that each CuStOllSI SlNS Iht PAopOl SO-Op cration and assist to the best of his ability in improving the indispensable service he renders.
 The ice man is more than an indi- vidual. He is an institution, neces- sary to our comfort, well-being and happiness, who gives us but little trouble, but is in turn very much troubled by our oversights, thought lessness and indifference.
 Take, for instance, such apparently trivial matters as having the right change ready and clearing the ice Compartments of our refrigerators so that he may deliver his daily load without delay. It may seem small thing to you to leave it, to the iceman to clear a place to put the new cake, and then keep him waiting for the 30 cents, but it proves to be big thing when this delay is repeated in some 150 homes in day. Just stop to think A delay of one minute at each home would mean that the last GUS toner of the day would receive his ice something over two haurs and a half later than he should.
 So you see it would be not only the ice man who would be benefited by your cooperation, but your fellow customers as well. Taking yourself as an example of the average GUS toner, which you are, you can readi- Iy see that if you could save the ice man a minute of time each day in the aggregate the benefit to the customers would be great.
 Another thing the ice man has to contend with and shouldn't are the requests of small children, which usually take the form of Hey, mist CT, On I have that chunk up there? Huh?? It aint so very big. On I have it Mister?' A little thing you say? But supposing the ice man has to stop and remonstrate with a few dozen children each day, not only to keep them from carrying away salable pieces of ice, but to keep them from riding the steps of the wagon where they are exposed to a very grave dan ger?
 Have you been altogether fair with the ice man on the matter of correct weight? And don't you realize that week in and week out you are just as apt to get an overweight chunk as underweight chunk, so that the average will give you all that you are paying for? Moreover, do you know that all reputable ice companies, when they put so-called 30O-pound cake onto the wagon make it a 310-pound cake so as to allow for the inevitable shrinkage of melting?
 It is told of man whose home was at point On a route where the ice was delivered at ' o'clock in the morning, but who was not in the hab- it of rising before s o'clock, that he was in the habit of carrying the cake he found on the sidewalk each morn ing to the corner grocery, where he would painstakingly weigh the cake. If he found a shortage, he made a note of it. If the cake was lover" he kept it to himself and at the end of the month, this "crank" presented a bill to the ice company to cover shortage This is fact, not fiction.
 Another customer, a woman, said she did not care to accept her ice at what appeared t. be an unreasonably early hour Sunday morning.
 "There are two kinds of people in the world" she said "Those who have to get up early Sunday morning and those who don't. I, fortunately belong to the latter class" The as- sumption being that she believed that
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