The Penn's Grove record., 1885-03-28
Two Queer Trades.

There exists in London a gentleman
who makes his whole income by mixing
salads. A few minutes before the COM
mencement of a dinner party he drives
up in a hanson aud proceeds TO the mix
ing Of the ingredients, which are ready
prepared for him. In a short time the
salad is finished, It is placed on the Ia
BILE, it is an incredible success. Such
an ethereal ]cOncOctiOn seems as if 10
cannot have been made by hands, but
rather as If il lowered between two
h~emlspheres, partaking of both while
belonging to neither. The greater part
Of the materials are found for him;
some he uses, some it seems good to him
to reject, but it is surmised thathe must
bring with Inn some singular tiavoriDg
or mysterious herb which gives to the
salad its magical flavor. Any way, the
salad is a success; the maker pockets a
guinea fee, and flies off IN another han
s0m-possibly to dream Of mYenting
another salad. No one has ever seen
the salad-maker at work. He demands
perfect solitude for his artistic employ
ment, and he has a preference for silence
while it is going On. He has a bland,
mysterious, and almost unctuous ex-
preston, which seems somehow to sug-
gest a person who takes especial delight
in the mixing of oil. He has a manner
so quietly polite, so calm and self-cOn-
tanned, as perfectly to battle any inquiry
which could be put to him as to his his
tory or the secret Of his trade. Were
his hostess to be even as impetuous as the
"Princess'' in Der ASrG, she would get
no information out Of the salad-maker.
The apostrophe, 8 Tell me quickly, what
thy name and what thy countTyP''w0uld
meet with no response beyond an oily
smile, a deprecatOry bow, and a gentle
shrug of the shoulders. In what coun-
try he discovered the secret of his salad,
whether there is a secret at all or
whether the flavor lies in the faith OF
the partaker, where he lives when he is
at home, and what he does when he is
not making salad-all these things are
mysteries, and will never be known dur
ing the lifetime of the salad-maker.
Not to be mentioned IN the same
breath with the salad-maker, yet having
a certain affinity with him through the
righteousness Of his occupation, Is the
professional beetle-hunter. He also
demands to work in secret, he also de-
mands a fee, but his manner unlike
that of the sa~lad-maker) is somewhat
grim and ~unresp6nsive. He will come
whenever you send for HIM, and will rid
your house of the in%truders instantane-
ously, but what he rather prefers is to
be paid by the year and to come when.
ever he thinks tit. For a small annual
sum-30s. or Whereabouts, if the writer's
memory does not deceive him-he will
undertake that not a single beetle shall
be seen in your establishment during
the time it is under his care. He ap-
pears particularly to like the air of
responsibility which Is given him by
this yearly income, considering himself
probably as getting thereby into the
position of a person with rents coming
in, and who might even have to pay
ineome-tax one of these days. What is
the subtle. communication which exists
between him and the beetle, and how
he does his spirting, is as deep a mys-
terry as the great salad question spoken
of above. Like the salad-maker, he
allows no witness to his performances,
and the manner of them must ever re.
main a matter for conjecture. He
comes at night, in the storm or tue
rain. but what he does, no one knows.
Probably he is a kind of successor to the
Pied Piper of Hamlin, and paTades the
basement playing on a pipe, by which
he lures his victims to destruction.