Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1889-08-01
A HUMAN CUCUMBER.

1t is well known that when cucumbers
are first cut from the vine there is q
piece which cxudes or bleeds from the
stem. One of our prominent northern
truck growers, Jared Benson, cut his
hand year or two ago, and this juice
got into the cut and his hand begin to
inhame, and an eruption similar 10
erysipclas made its appearance on Is
hand and extended up his arm, and
finally spread over his whole body.
Strange to say, there was no pain at
ten ling these eruptions of erysipelas, and
he continued to gather and pack his
cucumbers and prepare them for ship.
mtni TO the great surprise of every
body, these little erysipelas pimples as.
sumed the appearance and form Of small
cucumbers and continued to grow.
Although Benson kept we'll and hearty
he was compelled to strip himself and
take to his bed or course, the news of
this strange phenomenon spread far and
vide aud the doctors and scientific men
visited him from various sections of the
country. One prescribed one thing and
one another One wished to lleed him
Que wished to cut the cucumbers off;
another said no: let him have any water
and they would dry up; another said
stick hole in each cucumber and they
would die and new skin form another
wished to wrap him up in mammoth
poulticc Of barn yard manure aud draw
them all to cne head !; another said they
ought to be scattered.
Each had different remedy, but all
disagreed. So there was some hope that
the patient would get well. But the
small cucumbers grew into big ONES, and
his whole body was completely covered
with them from head to foot, and they
commenced to ripcn and turn yellow and
hang down, and the man assumed the
appearance Of huge bunch OF bananas.
When they sot ripe they began to
shrivel and dry up, and so did the man.
His sap was all gone and he died. The
doctors procured the consent Of the
family to permit an autopsy to be madej
for the benefit Of science, and they cut
iuto him with their knives, and to their
amasement found no flesh, no blood. no
bones, no muscles, no sinews, no veins,
no arteries; but found only one solid
mass Of cucumber seeds. 1t was %
;. remarkab that it would be useless to
: have the remains inferred and foolish te
have them cremated, and the widow
concluded that she would keep them il
70 the house. She had the corpse hun(
y up by the hair in the barn. The mex
~ spring some Of the children picked u
- some Of the seed which had dropped Of
- the floor aud planted them.
" They grew rapidly and matured, AM
= instead Of being like the parent stock Q
= cucumbers, they were pure pickles an
needed no vinegar, no pepper, no sall
10 nothing but simply packing into barrel
- and shipping to market and selling. Q
~ course, news Of the discovery sprsa
!" rapidly and multitudes Of applications q
y seed flowed ia like the incoming It'd
and thus enabled the disconsolate wido'
!. and children to turn the cause Of the
bereavement into = means Of maintsl
e ve snce and support. The wind Of afiie
:. tion was thus tempered to these shoi
!, lambs. They sold small packets
:, seed for big prices and could not supp
I'll the demand. The vine grown from u
:, hew seed is perennial evcrgreen y
!, can be propagated from cuttings, blcos
s. in the spring and bears in the sumner
- bountiful crop Of perfect pickles. q
widow sells tho seed 1t 81 papet..
"a Griffin (Go.) NeDs.