THE " SNOWBALL " PRAYER.
[To TRE EDITOR or THE " SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—A prayer on the " snowball " system continues to be sent to all and sundry. It was recently noticed in your columns, and I received a copy of it not long since. Those who receive it are asked to send out seven other copies to seven different persons on seven consecutive days, and each of the seven recipients is to do likewise. Those who carry out the instructions are to receive some unnamed blessing, and disaster is to come on those who break the chain. Apart from what may be termed the theological objections to the proceeding, the following facts show its futility. If none were to break the chain, by the tenth step the entire population of the world would have received one application and two-thirds would have received two. By the twelfth step the postage at one penny would pay off the National Debt, and leave enough over to pay for all our imports for over two years. At the twenty-fifth step, reached in only twenty-five weeks, the stamps, if placed end to end, would reach to the Milky Way, and light, travelling at the rate of 186,000 miles per second, would take some thousands of years to travel along the line. By this time the waste paper would have become so enormous that the whole surface of the land would be covered by paper, tightly rammed down, to the depth of three and a half feet. These facts, I think, show the childish futility of those who try to keep the snowball rolling.—I am, Sir, Sze., CHARLES J. P. CAVE.
Ditcham Park, Petcrsfield.
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