Boring and sententious as it may be the following was related to me by a recently departed friend whose family built many Long Island estates before WWII.

Sir Ashley Sparks,the american Representative of the Cunard lines had a magnificent colonial style estate in Syosset,Delano and Aldrich I think.

Anyway back in the late '20's my pal,{his Dad owned the construction company}was hired to expand the living quarters and also to construct a roman style grotto,for which they hired an Italian stonemason,a tight-lipped nervous fellow.

Anyhoo,Their custom was to place several bottles of beer and a couple of watermelons in the cool stream which ran thru the estate.

Problem was that one watermelon and 3 bottles of beer were always missing.

They soon found out the truth,it was the stonemason.
In order to teach him a lesson my friend went to Snouder's drug store in Oyster Bay(still extant)and asked "doc"Snouder...."Whaddya got that will make a man *****"?

"Well,we got senna and phospho-soda but you gotta be careful,too much and you'll get dehydrated and fall sick".

"That's all I wanna know doc,gimme some".

My pal injected the stuff with a glue syringe and placed the beer and watermelon in the stream as usual.........wouldn't ya know,2 hours later there was an unearthly scream and the unforgettable image of the stonemason grimacing in pain,naked to the waist in the stream evacuating painfully his ill-gotten goods.

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