Luck chain letter. "An Ancient Prayer" Starts
with letter about receipt of prayer & instructions. US, 1916.
Dear Friend: I have received the
following from a close friend of mine, who in turn has received it from another
friend, and so on through a long list of friends who have passed it along
with the request that each in turn send it to nine persons in nine days.
I am complying with the request and am inclosing this to you as one of my
nine friends.
I sincerely trust that you will be the recipient of the blessing which is
said to come from this transfer.
Very respectfully yours, _______
An Ancient Prayer
Oh, Lord, I implore thee to bless all mankind: bring us to thee; keep us
to dwell with thee.
This prayer is to be sent all over the world. It was said in ancient days
that all who wrote it would be free from calamity and all who passed it would
meet with some calamity or misfortune.
Copy it and send it to nine friends and on the tenth day you will meet with
some great joy.
Don't break the chain.
Published: The Kansas City Star
(Kansas City, Missouri), Feb. 23, 1916, p. 11.
CHAIN PRAYER IS COSTLY
A Promised Blessing and a Threatened Curse Keep Letter Going.
Millions of Persons Have Received the Communication Which Carries With It
a Command to Pass It On to Nine Other Persons.
From the Boston Globe. "One little chain prayer has cost this country
millions of dollars. Impossible! you say? Not a bit of it. The Rev.
Nichols van de Pyl of Haverhill made the statement and easily proved it.
It's about a 2 to 1 chance that some time during the last ten years you have
received the following letter:" [text]
"I have made it my business recently to inquire of men and women if they
have received one of these letters, and I have found but two out of fifteen
or twenty I have asked who have not received one. About half of those
who have received them have passed them on. ¶ ¶ ¶ ... The
other day a man, who had become crippled through accident a few years ago,
telephoned me. He had once received one of these letters and had broken the
chain; he said that ever since he had thought that the break might have been
the cause of his accident. He seemed to take a great pleasure in having me
say that I thought there was nothing to such prayer. ¶ Last week a public
stenographer in Boston wrote me stating that no less than four persons had
come to her to have these chain letters written. One of these was the wife
of a prominent attorney who was an exceptionally well educated and bright
woman."
Entered by DWV, Sept. 23, 2014.
le1916-02-23p1_ap_DearFriend
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