University of Virginia Library

Old Indian Proverb: 'No Basket, No Litter'

I am sending you the
enclosed with the hope that
you will be able to print it in
your paper next week. It may
call the attention of the
Administration to a present
problem on the Grounds. It
may even spur them to do
something about it.

First Gentleman: "What is that
monument planted on the
greensward in front of
Alderman Library?"

Second Gentleman: "It looks
neither educational nor
Jeffersonian. It has the
appearance of a small urinal."

First Gentleman: "What, in
front of Alderman Library?"

Second Gentlemen: "The
French do it." (Closer) "But,
no, you may put your fears to
rest. It is, in fact, a wastepaper
basket shaped to resemble a
small rotunda and protected by
a wooden fence, the whole
impaled on a lead pipe."

First Gentleman: "I am
relieved. I thought for a
moment it was something in
bad taste. What a magnificent
site for a wastepaper basket.
No one can pass by without
noticing it."

Second Gentleman: "Indeed!
Look, there under the
spreading chestnut tree is
another one, and to the left
another, and over there
another."

First Gentleman: "I imagine
that these are part of the plan
for the future of the
University. By 1984, in spite of
one hundred thousand
students, a person walking on
the grounds will never be more
than two feet from a
wastepaper basket."

Second Gentleman:
"Ingenious! By littering the
grounds with litter receptacles
the Administration will have
solved the litter problem."

It was reliably reported that
one night some weeks later a
band of men, dressed as Indians
and shouting, "no baskets, no
litter," seized all the little
rotundas and threw them into
Lake Albemarle.