Des Arc citizen., 1860-05-26
ANECDOTES OF MIKE WALSH.
On Mike Walsh arriving at Washir

On Mlke Ndion dTiiViiS dt ''oshiiS ton to take his seat in Congress, says the N. Y Leader, he registered his name al the hotel, when the bookkeeper blandly inquired for his baggage. II stand in the midst of it, sir" said Mike. He was no believer in much baggage. Even carpet bag for the most dslan, journey he considered as derogalory to true phi. losopher, who oughtnot to cucumber him- self with more than he could do up in a handkerchief When told of General Sir Charles Napier's saying that ia piece ot soap, a toothbrush and spare shirt was all an officer should start with on cam- paign," be said
 "P'shaw! when went down with the army of occupation in the grea, Rhode Island revolution we were lighter equipped than that-we left out the change of linen, the toothbrushes and the soap.
 At thefoot of the Capitol gardens in Pennsylvania Avenue Con the right hand side when you are fronting that buildlng) is an inclosed space-natonal property containing one or more tenements, and some conservalories and hot-houses. | Here for some years, and until hls death, enjoying Uncle Sam patronage, sojourn- ed Frenchman, learned in botany and many other sciences. Some companions, while passing the premises, were vaunllng his requirements to Mike, who, from spirlt of contradiction, called them in question. l He doubted whether these eminent botan- ists knew the difference between oats and wheat and believed he said thata Bow cry boy could persuade them that corn was clover. FinylIy, Mike undertook, "bo- tanically," to deceive the Frenchman with whatever he could pick up where they stood, in the lane skir,ing his pre- mises From wreck of flower-pots and rubbish, he selected one sound pot and a dead rat lying next the heap. Placing the rat in the fower-pot he covered 1t up with mould, leaving out the tail, which he fixed perpendcularly by tying lt care 'fuIly to small green stick, which hap- pened to be convenient amongst the garden rubbish. He next called on the professor, and told him that friend, Lieut.. -, (who having touched at one of the islands of the then terra ancognifa Japan, had excited some interest," had presented him with very curious kind of cactus This he wished the professor to examine. No one, Mike said, had been able to make il out and he might have Il for ten years and not find live people who would so he hardly feltjustified in keep ing it out of public collection, and yet he did not like to part with keepsake from ''friend."
 The Professor eagerly repaired to ex- anime the vegetable curiosity Alter a close inspection he determined what it was, or at least christened 1t by fine Greek name--two words, as Mike said, averaging sixteen letters. The Professor exhausted himself in persuading Mike that the interests of science required that he should sacrifice to them the sentiments of friendship, by surrendering this rare production of the vegetable kingdom to the keeping of the bolanist. Thereluct- ant Mike eventually consented, on the willing and solemn assurance qf the Pro | lessor that 1t would be tended with the ut most care and so 1t was. Placed in a | DOl-UOuSc, IL WuS CdutiOuSiy put ooISihhJ | besprlnkled with water, al a temperature of seventy degrees by the themomeier.-- - It was noticed and described in the Ma tional Intellgencer. The notice was copied into other papers The plant was exhibited with pride to several eminent individuals; at length, with the heat and moisture, the tip of the tail began to ex- corate. The Professor was delighted it was budding. It was examined with great interest by one of his chief patrons, "the great Daniel" to whom the botanist promised one of the first slips for Marsh field.
 ''It was too good joke to keep said Mike, "especially in a hot-house, so long before they smelt rat"
 The wrath and shame of the Professor were excessive, and so was the indigna- ton of the great Daniel not at the author of the joke, but at the unfortunate botan- ist, whom he stimalized as ''d-d frog eating Frenchman, through whom he had been taken in, and who ought to have known better"