previous next


Reprehensible Carelessness.

--Several accidents have been reported, some involving the breakage of limbs, from the foolish practice indulged in by some thoughtless persons of tossing on the pavement the rinds of watermelons, cantelopes, peaches, oranges and such like slippery substances. Unsuspecting persons, passing along, accidentally tread upon one of these rinds, and find themselves immediately down upon the pavement, with a head bruised by the fall, a leg broken, or an ankle sprained. A man that would make a hole in the pavement, into which passers could unsuspectingly stop and break a limb, would be considered an inhuman sort of person, and he would be made to pay the penalty of damages for the injuries he caused. But the injury is the same, whether it is done maliciously, by setting a trap, or thoughtlessly, by individuals too mentally lazy to think always correctly of the consequences of their acts. A person has no right to imperil another's person in the street, and no right-minded individual would do it. A man or woman of sense would throw the rind or paring of fruit into the street or, better still, into the slop-tub. It at any time such a person were to see a peach-paring or watermelon rind upon the pavement, he or she would immediately toss it into the street with the foot, so as to prevent some person less observing from receiving injury. Whenever we see this being done, we instinctively feel respect rising in our mind for the person for the act affords evidence that the individual has good sense to perceive the impropriety of leaving anything upon the pavement which can do mischief — a thoughtful consideration for the safety of others, and real kindness of heart to save from injury. The person who thoughtlessly or recklessly throws fruit parings or rinds upon the pavement has neither.

Yesterday the Mayor had before him an individual who for several days past had been bellowing out in the streets in an awful tone of voice the fact of his having for sale some description of tropical fruit. The nuisance was ordered to be abated, unless carried on under the sanction of law. The noise made was certainly to the disturbance of public and individual rights of peace; but it was not more reprehensible than the practice of setting traps to break people's legs, above alluded to.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide Places (automatically extracted)

View a map of the most frequently mentioned places in this document.

hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: