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NEGLECT
Men were once engaged in driving a railway tunnel under a large river. While they were pushing the shield of the tunnel on its submarine journey a defective steel plate broke. All escaped except one man, who stumbled and fell. Before he could regain his feet the water engulfed him. It was the defective plate that did it. Far away somewhere, the makers of that plate failed to do their duty, and through their failure this man’s life was lost.
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See [Decay]; [Indifference to the Good].
NEGLECT, CONSEQUENCES OF
The cause of an epidemic of typhoid fever among the 1,000 inhabitants of Three Oaks, Mich., was discovered when a member of the Board of Health climbed to the top of the waterworks’ stand-pipe and found the bodies of several thousand young sparrows covering the surface of the water. Immediately the mayor gave instructions to empty the stand-pipe, scrub and paint it.
Hundreds of sparrow nests have been built on a ledge that runs around the summit of the stand-pipe and the young birds are supposed to have fallen in while trying to fly. The cover made for the stand-pipe when it was constructed was never put on. The result was twenty-one cases of typhoid in the town.
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Neglect in Church Attendance—See [Church Services].