The Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1859-1865, 1860-06-21
The Rat Tail Cactus.

The n. Y. Ledger, in giving sketch
Of the late Mike Walsh, relates of him
when a member of Congress, the following
story, which, though old, is worth repeat
ing, as no one can by any possibility read
it without laughing:
At the foot Of the capitol gardens at
Pennsylvania avenue, Con the right hand
side as you are fronting that building,)
Is an enclosed space-national property
containing one or more tenements and
some Conservatives and lighthouses
Here for some years past, and until his
death, enjoying Uncle Sans patronage, So
Journed Frenchman, learned in botany
and many other sciences. Some cOmpan-
| ions, while passing these premises, were
vauntlng his requirements to Mike who
| from spirit of contradiction, called them
in question. He doubted whether these
eminent botanists knew the difference be-
! tween oats and wheat, and believed, he
said, that Bowery boy could persuade
them that their corn was clover. Finally
| Mike undertook, "botanically," to deceive
the Frenchman with whatever he could
pick up where they stood, in the lane
skirting his premises. From a wreck of
flower pots and rubbish. he selected enc
sound pot and rat lying next the heap.
Placing the rat in the flower pot, he COW
cred itup with mould, leaving out the tail,
which he fixed perpendicularly by tying
it carefully to a small green rubbish. He
next called on the Professor, and told him
that friend, Lieut. -, Whose ship
having touched at one of the Islands Of
the then terra incognita, Japan, had excl
ted some interest,) had presented him
with very curious kind Of cactus. This
he wished the professor to examine. Nc
one, Mike said, had been able to make il
out, and he might have kept it for ten
years and not find FIVE people who would
so he hardly felt justified in keeping il
out Of the public collection, and yet he
; did not like to part with keepsake from
friend"
The Professor eagrely repaired to exam
inspection he determined what it was, OF
at least christcned it by fine Greek name
two words, as Mike said, averaging six
teen letters. The Professor exhausted
himself in persuading Mike that the in
terests of science required that he SHOULD
sacrifice TO them the sentiments Of friend
ship, by surrendering this rare production
of the vegetable kingdom to the keeping
of the botanist The reluctant Mike
eventually consented, on the willing ant
solemn assurances of the Professor that /
would be tended to with the utmost care
: and so it was Placed in hot house, /
was cautiously but carefully besprinkleC
with water at a temperature of sevent,
| degrees by the thermometer. 1t wa
noticed and described in the Ndfiono
| LllteEligcnccr The notice was copied int
: other papers. The plant was eXhibite'
: with pride to several eminent individual
= at length with the heat and moisture th
l tip oe the tail began to excoriate. TIL
7 Professor was dclighted-it was budding
4 II was examined with great interest b
t one of the chief patrons, "the Great Dan
; iel," to whom the botanist promised on
of the first slips for Marshfeld. at wa
too good joke to keep" said Mike, "es
e pecially in not house, 50 before long the
S smelt rat" The wrath and shame c
. the Professor was excessive, and so wa
), the Indignation of the Great Daniel, nc
/, at the author of the joke, but at the ur
t fortunate botanist, whom he stigmatise
:. as ''d-d frog-eating Frenchmar
through whom he had been taken Ill, an
v ought 20 have known better"