Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1895-03-08
PROFIT IN GUINEA >lcS.
The Reward OF Three Years Labor In
Producing "a taudatcd Variety.

u have just come i'm from the coun-
try. said the young man with the win
ter style derby. and succeeded in max
ing large and Juicy fool of M, sell al
most every day while was there.
stayed with an uncle O. mine who has a
farm sixteen or seventeen miles from
nowhere. and the keubeus got the
laugh ON me So many times that ! can't
remember the number.
The Iueercst experience that | had,
though. was M one oi their county fairs.
They held the fair early hi, year. for
some reason or other and ! was ON
hand 10 take il in went out 10 the
grounds with a party ol young women
who were visiting in the ncighbOrhOOd,
and, undismayed 10y the failure OF my
former attempts To string the rustics,
| started out to have fun with them as
soon "a we struck the grounds. We
walked around the grounds for a
couple OF hours, and was poking all
manner of fun al the people we met.
Finally we came To the she'd where the
poultry was on exhibition, and, a. we
went along looking Al the variously bred
chickens, | got particularly funny. AT
"A box with five or six guinea pigs in il.
There were quite a number of country
men standing ;rOund looking at the
queer little animals.
we walked over and looked at the
pigs. Then said loudly: DO you
know that if you pick up guinea pig
by the tail lis eyes will drop out?' The
countryman stared Fact. | continued.
Pick one of them up by the tail and its
eyes will drop right out. Most queer
ly constructed anatomically OF any ami
NAL known 10 naturalists. If these
pigs were mine would soon show you. >
A big, strapping fellow who stood
beside the box said; Stranger, don't
believe YOU insisted that was
right but he stood and doggedly shook
his head. and the rest of the country
men sided with him. Now guinea
pig has no tail. and there is where the
| joke comes in. | argued for some little
time and then made a grand bluff
pulled out a roll Of bills and offered to
bet the Reuben $50 that just that thing
would happen. Imagine my surprise
when the Reuben hauled greasy old
pocketbook cut of his jeans and covered
the money. | was sure | had him for
! the bet was a catch one anyhow. and AZ
the young women who were with me
were eggIng me on | couldn't think OF
funking
Understand, | said, i claim that if
you pick up that guinea pig by its tail
its eyes will drop out.
81 understand said the countryman.
as he opened little door in the side of
the box and pulled out guinea pig
Now pick this one up and let see its
eyes drop out
Then | began to laugh. Ia, my
friends, said. / have played little
trick on you, that's all. As guinea
pig has no tail, you can't pick one up
by it. Ii you could 30 not doubt that
its eyes would drop out
Il reached out for my half of the bet,
when the big countryman said Hol' on
there, mister. You jist look an see if
this here guinea pig hain't got tail |
examined it, and may | be switched If
| it didn't have a tail an inch long. The
countryman picked it up by the little
caudal appendage and, of course its
eyes didn't drop out. Then he reached
over, grabbed the wad of money and put
it in his pocket, remarking the while:
L didn't think when | developed that
breed OF guineas that they would ever
make that much for me-.
I'll be blamed if he hadn't been work
ing for three years to produce guinea
pigs with tails. He had succeeded and
| was chump enough to 90 up against
the only cage of that kind of animals in
he world with my chestnut about their
eyes dropping out.