Word: d
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...enclosed letter is written in the hope that you will publish it. Henry D. Perky was my father, and I have long resented the ill-considered way in which his good name has been used...
...your issue of Dec. 24 is a notice of the absorption of the Shredded Wheat Co. by the National Biscuit Co. which gives considerable space to the story of Henry D. Perky's invention of shredded wheat. From first to last this story shows almost no regard for the facts. Since it is the story which has with small variations been used as advertising for many years, I want to suggest what poor copy these careless fabrications make as compared with the true story...
...Henry D. Perky was not a "dyspeptic lawyer." His invention of shredded wheat occurred about fifteen years after he left the practice of law. He did not "peddle his biscuits in baskets" (bumptious bunk!) either in Nebraska, which he left about 1879, or in Denver, where, in 1893, he was, as always, dignified and rather magnificent. If those who have been trying to make his story sell biscuits had first taken the obvious step of looking up the history of this one of our most characteristically vital Americans, they could have undoubtedly made valuable copy and sold more biscuits...
...circumstance which led to the invention of shredded wheat was the burning of the Steel Car Company's shops in St. Joseph, Mo. By building steel passenger and freight cars away back in the 'eighties, Henry D. Perky felt that he was doing a great public service; just as years afterwards he believed in his biscuits as a religion and, in Conquistador spirit, persuaded the people of New England to eat them, as it were at the sword's point, sharpened by a scorn that startled these good people into submission...
...stockyards. During ten years Jerry led the macabre processions of sheep and lambs to the slaughter house. Seven million innocents followed him. None of them returned. All became lamb and mutton chops. Deceptive Jerry was pampered, lived in idle ease. He died of old age after a succes d'estime...