Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1892-02-19
THE TAkIR AND HIS WEIGHTS.


Some Heavy Looking stones That May
Not BE az Real ns They Appear.
He was f. kir Is stand was in front
of onp Of the unuD, ipied stores C.i Flu. o..
street. where, day after d.. le God and
son e. l.,.Lent cenent for .I,.iuIng 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
covery of the Nineteenth century," which
was the mild way in which the fakir de-
scribed the cement, which he retailed at
the astonshingly 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 IA 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 melt in water
heated to Il temperature of POO 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, would buy bot
tie of the wonderful preparation, receiving
the fakir's humorous assurance that if 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 fakir's
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 in
spite of the large swinging stones, which
kept up their backward and forward move
ment with the regularity of Il clock pendu-
| lum.
The mystery was solved in an unexpected
manner one evening, when hard snow
storm compelled the genial fakir to CLOSE
| up" somewhat earlier than usual. When
| the writer came along toward the fakir's
! place of business he noticed that the iron
i frame had been taken down and disiointed,
in order that it might be more easily car
ried. The only other article in view was a
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 SO 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 it up, and shouldering the dis
Jointed iron frame, stepped over to the
curb to wait for his car. The car came
bowling along in a few moments ("bowl-
ing" is rather strong word to use when
speaking of "A Brooklyn car, but it sounds
welD, and the fakir signaled the driver tc
stop, but with nonchalance 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
he 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 q
block or so, and landed gracefully on the
rear platform, with all his traps in good
order.
have since been thinking that perhaps
those stones" We're not so heavy as had
supposed, or is it possible that there are
such things as wooden s?"-Brook
Ign Eagle.