A 'Chain '-prayer Calculation

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 16, 18 April 1907, Page 10

A ' Chain '-prayer Calculation

The socialjiiischief dome by joltheads and lackwits has many a time led precipitate aphorists to declare that they are more harmful than the wicked in- this ' wale of tears '. The extent to which folly may on occasion be the tool of fraud and sin finds ample illustration in the * ' elder's chain-prayer ' nuisance that Iras been for some . time past afflicting a^longnSuKering public. A mathematician in our clever contemporary, the Bombay , ' Examiner ', publishes sundry calculations which^ show what a stupendous and costly infliction these . chain impostures may become. Recipients of the chain-prayer are variously requested to wiite and distribute nine" copies (without other' i.roviso), and one copy each day for nine consecutive days. By distributing the nine copies on the day of receipt, the result would be as follows : first day, nine copies ; second day, 81 ; third day, 729 ; fourth day, 6,561 ; fifth day, 59,049 ; and so on, -multiplying by * nine day, until, on the ninth, the copies of the - pestiferous American hoax placed in ci culation .would reach the enormous" total of 435,848,482. The' Examiner "•• also publishes a table giving the rate of distribution day by day for a month' at- the rate of one copy by each recipient each day for nine consecutive days. Picking some of the figures from the table, we learn that on the first -day one copy is put into circulation ; on the second day two ; en the third day four ; on the fourth day eigfit ; on the tenth day 511 ; on the fifteenth day 16,27(2 ; on the .twentieth day 515,14i5 ; on the- twentyfifth day 16,499,120. ; on the thirty-first day 1,049,716,729, or over a thousand millions ! ~-

With these stupendous figures, oL a stupendous folly, ' the ' Examiner ' had little trouble in sustaining its statement that ' the cost of paper and stamps wasted in circulating the elder's chain-prayer mighty. if collected, build a hcsspital '. ' It would~ be more appropriately spent upon an insane asyium. Judging by the * Exami- ' ner's "* calculation, if a chain-prayer were continued for s a - few months, the money wasted upon it by the rahttpoles of the English-jspeadtdn-g world- would suffice .toi build two first-class fleets or jiaya nation's ransom. But the (1 elder's chain-prayer ' has been circulating in ever increasing volume for over a year. The ' Examiner' makes the following • very practical suggestion ' :—

' If the postal authorities wish to give us a universal half-penny postage for letters, and & reduced rate

for parcels ,and newspapers, let them start a ohainprayer ! All the foolish -people will spend t?heir_ money in helping to circulate it.; and from the vast, contribution of their foolishness all the wise people will -derive an enormous" benefit. Nay inoi;e, if --the British' Government wants to pay off 'the national debt, or to secure unlimited resources. for the equipment of the army and 1 thfe navy, without throwing the onus on- the taxpayers I let "them . make a secret agreement with the post to halve the profits, and then keep a series of chain-prayers in - circulation. In - fact, we are rapidly "coming to the conclusion that a chain-prayer- affords the most effectual solution of. all economic and - administrative , problems which in any way rest on :finance. The man who. first invented so- great a boon ought to have amonument ! ' ' , Which is 'wrote sarcastic.'. It. reminds us ol the prayer of v ßillings :- ' God save the phools and dcm't let 'em run out, for without "* em wise men couldn't get so good a livinV In the lcng, long ago, . fortune teliers in Alexandria used to pay to" the city a tribute out of their earnings. It was called * f ools-pence because (says an old writer) it was 'made by their own ingenious^ folly and the credulous dotage of their admirers '. For some time past the- coffers: o* the postoffice in. many English-speaking countries; have been bulging with the ' lools'-pence ' of beef-witted- and superstitious folk (mostly non-Catholic) who; in, their ' credulous dotage ', have- allowed themselves to be made the tools of some knave or practical joker. west of the Atlantic. - The Boeotians are a -fruitful generation, and their race shows nci signs of dying out.