The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-03-03
Nl(llit Eagle
THE FAmR AM his WEIGHTS.

TIE FAKiR AM Ills WEIGHTS.
Some Heavy Looking Stones That May
Not he as Real as They Appear.
He was a fakir His stand was in front
of one of the uDoccupied stores on Fulton
street, where, day after day, he stood and
sold a patent cement for nending crOckery,
etc. The principal part of his outfit con-
sisted of an iron frame, from the crossbar
of which were suspended various pieces OF
broken china, glass wood, iron and so on,
fastened together with the greatest dis
corery of the Nineteenth century" which
was the mild way in which the faklr de-
scribed the cement, which he retailed at
the astonishingly low price OF twenty-five
cents a bottle" Attached to the ends Of
these strings Of cemented crockery were
huge rocks, supposedly very heavy, which
were used as test of the strength of the
sticking powers of the cement, and which
the fakir pushed at intervals with his foot,
so as to make them swing back and forth,
and so lend additional proof to his assertion
that the cement would not met IN water
heated to a temperature Of 200 degs., ladies
an gen linen"
Thousands of people passed the fakir's
stand every day, and sometimes one would
stop. and after taking good look at the
swinging arrangements, wouId buy bot
tie of the wonderful preparation. receiving
the fakir's humorous assurance that II he
thought he was stuck" he could bring it
back and he would refund his money as
cheerfully as he had received it.
The writer. in common with thousands
of his fellow townsmen, passed the fakirs
stand every day, and each day marveled
more and more at the wonderful powers
possessed BY the cement which held those
tiny bits of china and glass together 10
spite OF the large swinging stones, which
kept up their backward and forward move
ment with the regularity Of a clock pendu-
lum.
The mystery was solved in an unexpected
manner one evening, when a hard snow
storm compelled the genial fakir to ''close
up'' somewhat earlier than usual When
the writer came along toward the faGr's
place OF business he noticed that the iron
frame had been taken down and disjointed,
in order that it might be more easily car
Tied The only other article il view was
huge canvas valise in which it is presumed
had been packed the stock OF cement and
the strings Of cemented glass and china, to-
gether with those heavy stones which
played 50 important part in demonstrate
ing the adhesive qualities of the glue. All
these things must have made the valise
rather heavy, but the fakir didn't seem to
mind.
He picked Il up, and shouldering the dis
jointed iron frame, stepped over TO the
curb 10 wait for his car. The car came
bowling along in few moments C'bowl-
iDg' is rather strong word to use when
speaking of a Brooklyn car, but it sounds
welD and the fakir signaled the driver TO
stop, but with a norclalance which is only
possible to a Brooklyn car driver who is
trying to make up for the time lost in
climbing the hill from the ferry, he ig-
nOred the poor fakir and drove on. / felt
sorry for the cement dealer, knowing how
be was handicapped by that weighty
valise, and was about to sympathize with
him, when to my surprise he started on
brisk run through the snow after the NOV
ing car. He caught it after running
block or So and landed gracefully on the
rear platform, with all his traps in good
order
l have since been thinking that perhaps
those ''stones' were not SO heavy as | had
supposed, or is it possible that there are
such things as wooden s?"-Brook-
lyn Eagle.