The Ant and Grasshopper: Faultless Starch Books, Vol. II

Title

en_US The Ant and Grasshopper: Faultless Starch Books, Vol. II

Description

No Author

Creator

en_US No Author See all items with this value

Date

2023-09-20T15:17:07Z

2022-12

en_US 1910?

Date Available

2023-09-20T15:17:07Z

Date Issued

en_US 1910

Abstract

en_US Here is one of two similar 16-page pamphlets from about the same time, both 3" x 5". One has a green cover and uses green ink for its images and text. As a guess, I will presume that this is the earlier of the two pamphlets. The fable of GA has a grasshopper who is a "gay young thing, thoughtless, careless, always singing and dancing, and letting the servants run the house and waste things as much as they pleased." My, this grasshopper has servants! She looks on her plodding busy cousin, the ant, with disdain. The ant warns the grasshopper: "the first rainy day will take all the starch out of your wings, and what will you do then?" Thus there are really two issues for this grasshopper. Sure enough, she soon needs Faultless Starch for her drenched wings. The ant refuses her and tells her to walk to a grocery store to get the starch. This grasshopper learns her lesson on both counts and, the following year, has a full cellar of food and even becomes friends with the ant. Eight line drawings grace the text. The fable is followed by quotations, conundrums, and even a calculation of what money one can accumulate by saving a certain amount each day for fifty years, with compound interest. A penny yields $950; five dollars a day yields $475,208. I guess the grasshopper, aided by Faultless Starch, could even become rich! I was surprised to learn that Faultless Starch, which traces its history to 1887 and took on the added name of Beaham in 1901, still exists in Kansas City. The two staples on this pamphlet have given out, but the pages are intact. This gift is a result of Susie's tracking not "Aesop's fables" on Ebay, but rather characters in well-known fables. Great work, Susie!

Identifier

en_US 13272 (Access ID)

uri

https://cdr.creighton.edu/handle/10504/143602

Language

en_US eng

Publisher

en_US Faultless Starch Co.

en_US Kansas City, MO

Subject

One story See all items with this value