A Christmas carol -- In consideration of the white collar man -- The bread of tomorrow -- If I would acept charity -- Families: the crisis that brought them closer -- Families: the crisis that pulled them apart -- An opportunity to help -- A merry and joyful Christmas -- True circumstances.
Summary
The author's grandfather, Sam Stone, placed an ad in the Canton, OH, newspaper shortly before Christmas in 1933, offering cash gifts to seventy-five families in distress. Readers were asked to send letters describing their hardships to a benefactor calling himself Mr. B. Virdot. The author investigates a suitcase full of letters responding to these ads as he learns more about his grandfather's hidden past as well as the suffering and triumphs of strangers during the Great Depression. -- From publisher's description.
