The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1886-06-26
SOME sTUPENDoUs STORIES.
The Fish, the Snake and the Straw
berry in Fiction.
Mrs. Pilsen in the Frederick Md. Ne,os.

only to that Of the inventor of the Equator.
These two species of falsifers are as old as
the first tooth that Methuselah ever wore,
but the strawberry liar is recent innova-
ton, or at least one whose fame has not yet
spread very far or shown the fatigue of
long usage. 1t is one of the inscrutable
mysteries of life that every man is pos
sessed with bump of emulation to surpass
his fellowman in his fish and snake stories
that amounts in many instances to pro-
tuberance so large as to closely resemble a
wen upon the side of the head. I have
read of cases where this bump of emulation
so nearly approached to the size of the
mans head that every time he went out
he was obliged to ask his wife if he had
his hat on the right knot As an in
stance of the fish falsifers malady the
Ancient Angler at Greenfield Mills writes
me under date of June 9TH, that he had
Just returned from the most successful
angling excursion he has ever come up
with in his 49 years of active experience.
He says that the stream didn't seem to be
very thick with fish, but that when he
threw his line in and propped his rod for
few minutes, while he turned around to
| light bis pipe, and turned back to the rod
again, he found the fish just climbing out
of the stream up the line, fin over fin, and
down the rod to the but end where they
carefully piled themselves up with their
mouths and gills wide spread ready to be
strung He says they were coming up SO
fast that he believes he would have gotten
500 in less than half an hour if it hadn't
been that two frisky four-pounders got to
wrangling on the line as to which should
go up first and broke the line feet above
the water, thus stopping the parade. As
it was he got Alb. And when he left he
says he saw four or five speckled beauties
with the broken end of the line in the
stream trying their best to throw it up
over tree limb SO that they could climb
out on it. Now that's the sort of histo-
rian the Greenfield Mills fish fabricator is,
and yet the bump on his head isn't larger
than the knob on Dave Smiths store door.
The snake romantist is equally as brisk
and bulky in his racy recitals. One of
him-dont criticize the grammar me
day or two ago that he had just come in
from the country where he had had most
singular adventure. He said he had been
walking along the road when storm came
up suddenly and he ran little ways into
the woods at the side of the road and took
shelter under tree Hardly had he brac-
ed himself against the trunk of the tree
when he heard queer cracking noise
above and around him. Looking up he
saw a perfect army of snakes trailing their
long lengths from the lower branches of
the tree to the ground. They seemed to
take twist in the branches and then let
their long, black bodies hang down until
the ends of their tails touched the ground.
They massed themselves so close together
entirely around the tree that they closed
him into a sort of dark hut The storm
ragged furiously without, and although the
wind blew and drove the rain in sharp
blasts against this living curtain, so tightly
were the snakes wedged together that not
drop of rain forced its way between them.
When the storm ceased and the sun came
out again, the snakes hurriedly coiled them
selves up in the tree top from whence they
came, and my friend, whose vaccination
against falsehood never took, went on his
journey dryshod and happy. He says he
thinks the snakes just stretched themselves
out that way purposely to let the rain fall
upon them and roll off and in that way
wash the dirt and dust off them. HIS
bump is only little hollow in his head so
far, but he has prospect.
This brings in the Strawberry Sapphira.
She lives a little ways over in jersey and
| Al IL 10,
the week during the. season. buy some
from her every time l can borrow dollar
from the butter man. l was in luck yes
terday morning and while bargaining with
her. for five boxes for the price of four she
unburdened herself to me of the following
astonishing pastoral. That's PASTORAL.
1t means bucolic;-a rural poem. [
wrote something about nocturne last week
and my friend, the compositer, set it up
nocturnal. I expect he'll turn this pasto-
raj into pasture. If he waits he'll find out
it don't need it. 1t is already gorged. }
She said that her father had set apart an
acre of land or 6 years ago to raise straw
berries upon, but that although he set out
! the choicest and sturdiest vines year after
year, and gave them the most faithful and
intelligent attention not single berry ever
grew upon one of them. Last year he did
, not put out any plants, but about the 18th
of May they noticed slight rise, like a
, little mound, in the centre of the acre of
ground. Each day it seemed to grow a
! little larger, until it became quite respec-
table hill People came from all around
: the country to see it and the farmer who
| was growing a mountain on his farm.
+ Some wanted to dig down into it, but her
) father would not allow it. He said he
wanted to wait and give nature chance.
. Finally on the 11th of June, that's just a
? year ago to-day, about 10 o'clock in the
5 morning, little cloud of dust foated up
in the air off the hill, and the earthly top
and sides seemed to shrink away, roll down
E and left in full view great, big, monstrous,
) red, ripe strawberry-150 feet in circum-
e ference, so in diameter and 68 feet long.
: 1t took Is yoke of oxen to cap it. After
S that they dug into it with picks and show
i. els and cut out the sweet, juicy heart and
/ sold it by the saucer, pint, quart or gallon,
E like ice cream After they had it about
e half excavated they rented it out to a
: neighboring church to hold strawberry
festival in. They had tables and chairs
and band of music inside, and people
walked right in and ate of the house that
sheltered them. She said her father
thought the growth was the concrete de-
velopment of all the plants that he had set
out upon the ground, that their strength
, and fruitage had soaked into the earth and
,, finally come forth in this concentrated form.
Moreover, she said her father still had the
acre of ground that produced this won
derful berry and invited me over to see it.
The bump on her head ought to be as
big as the strawberry.
What scholar ever remembered what he
learned at school? What apprentice ever
forgot what he learned at the shop2 What
, man or woman, to whom years ever brought
<,f l.coie ,oo1o hoe r,<,f ~,