Western liberal. (Lordsburg, N.M.) 1887-1919, 1896-09-25
lsHMABL's MANGROvE
TREE
From the Baneor commereIaI.

From the Bangor Comnercial.
Chief Gilman of the Bangor police
force has a curiosity up at his resi-
dence on the west side which, if il
continues to thrive, will be likely tc
prove more of a sensation to people Of
this vicinity than anything which may
result from the November election oil
the continued fall in the price of lard.
| This is a pretty little plant, about a
foot n height, which Ishmael, the
circus Hindoo now in the county jail
here, tricked out Of pile of wet dirt
up at the prison the other night. Ish-
mael is already well known to our
readers. 1t was he was stabbed the
Singalese rasca! who dared ridicule
the faith of Brahma, and he got into
Bangor Jail for doing it.
AS soon as he struck the Jail be be.
gan to amuse the other prisoners with
his antics. He is more of an athlete
than has ever been seen in Bangor,
and, though he is only nineteen years
Of age, aud rather understood, he can
handle man twice his weight aud
years in way that simply astonisnes
the latter; there is no fathoming his
tricks of wrestling, for he has catches
and holds that have been handed
down in the inner circles of his race
for many generations. He is as solid
as bundle Of wires and as docilc as a
child. He is handsome boy, and he
became the pet OF the jail inmates
about as soon as he got acquainted
there.
Ishmael brought with him to Jail a
few of his goods and chattels, They
are queer lot of dinky doddics, mir
iature tom-toms, dried betel nuts,
pieces Of cork, spools, snake skins,
stones, cocoanut shells, and tin
dishes-everything you can think Of
pile of common things with very un-
common powers, as Ishmael makes
them work.
The young Hindoo is fakir-not
the kind that haunts the street
corners and sells shoestrings and
patent medicines, for they are the
creations of the slang language of the
day; he is a real East Indian fakir, and
the tricks which he does are regarded
by his people as well nigh supernat-
ural. They have never been solved
excepting when betrayed by some
member of the race who got drunk on
western flre-water, and exposed the
whole thing These rascals die sud-
denly soon after.
One of the best of the tricks is the
growing OF bush out of a pile Of dirt
in fun view of an audience. Ishmael
can do it. He did it the other night
up in the Jail when Sheriff Brown
gave him chance to nse his appar-
atus, and Chief Gilman has the plant
as proof.
Ishmael took little pile of sand
and mud which had been brought for
him in the Jail yard underneath the
window where he looks out and thinks
up new tricks every day, and placed
it in the middle of the floor on a cloth.
Then he took what he said was a seed
and showed it to his small audience.
This seed was the same thing from
which he had produced dollar bill a
few minutes before by simply squeez-
ing it, but that didn't make any diff
ference to him, but he put it in the
dirt and got ready to grow his bush,
Nobody thought he was really going
to do it. He swore that he would pro-
duce maagrove tree.
Ishmael first took cloth and placed
it over the earth; then he began to
say off some kind of heathenish in
cantation, and in the course of a half
minute, when he removed the cover
ing, there was little sprout starting
up about an inch above the pile.
That's pretty good. lshmael smiled
demurely and winked the other eye. =.
Again Ishmael put the cloth on the
dirt and again he ratified off his rub
blsh in choicest Hindoo. Something
suddenly stuck itself up inside the
cloth, which peaked up and wrinkled
as it did so, and then off came the
cover with a swish and exposed very
healthy young bush standing in the
dirt.
OF course everybody said that the
bush was made of paper, but it wasn't
IL was real thing, and it was moist
and soft and pithy just as If 1t had
been newly plucked from the ground
outside. At its bottom was full set
of little roots which were covered
with the clinglng earth in which it
had-well, grown.
Chief Gilman, who was present,
took the bush home with him and set
Sure to Win.
The people recognize and appreciate
FNNt-s II