Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1885-04-01
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 dinner party he drives
up in hanson and proceeds to the mix
ing Of the ingredients, which are ready
prepared for him. In short time the
salad is finished, It is placed on the ia
ble, it is an incredible success. Such
An ethereal concoction seems as if it
cannot have been made by hands, but
rather as if it hovered between two
hemlspheres, 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
70 reject, but it is SurmiSed thathe must
bring with INN some singular flavoriDg
DR. 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
sOm-possiDly to dream of Inventing
another salad. No one has ever seen
the salad-maker at work. He demands
perfect solitude for his artistic employ
ment, and he has preference for silence
while it is going ON. He has bland,
mysterious, and almost unctuOus eX-
preston, which seems somehow to sug-
yest person who takes especial delight
in the mixing of oil. He has 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
AsprinnaGcf1 in Da,- "a xtrnnl1
no information out of the Saladmaker.
The apostrophe, Tell me quickly, what
thy name and what thy eountry?"would
meet with no response beyond an oily
smile, deprecatOry bow, and 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
mysteriousness of his occupation, IS the
professional beetle-hunter He also
demands to work in secret, ne also de-
mands a fee, but his manner unlike
that of the salad-maker) is somewhat
grim and unreSpOnsive. He will come
whenever you send for him, and will rid
your house of the intruders instantane-
ously, but what he rather prefers is to
be paid by the year and to come when
ever he thinks tit. For small annual
sum-30s. or thereabOuts, 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
respectability which Is given him by
this yearly income, considering himself
probably as getting thereby into the
position of person with rents coming
in, and who might even have to pay
income-tax one of these days. What is
the subtle communication which exists
between him and the beetle, and how
he does his spirIting, is as deep mys-
terry as the great salad question spoken
of above. Like the salad-maker, ha
allows no witness to his performances,
and the manner of them must ever rel
main a matter for conjecture. tie
comes at night, in the storm or th6
rain, but what he does, no one knows.
Probably he is a kind of successor TO the
Pied Piper of Hamlin, and parades the
basement playing on a pipe, by which
he lures his victims to destruction.