Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1896-10-01
lshmael,s Mangrove Tree.

continued fall In the price OF lard.
This is pretty little plant, about a
foot in height, which Ishmael, the cir
Gus Hindoo now in the county jail
here, tricked out of pile of wet dirt
up at the prison the other night lsh-
mael is already well-known to our
readers. 1t was he who stabbed the
singalese rascal who dared ridlcuIe
the faith of Brahma, and he got into
the Bangor Jail for doing SO.
As soon as he struck the Jail he be-
gan to amuse the other prisoners with
his antics. He is more of an athlete
than ever has been seen in Bangor,
and, though he is only 10 years OF age,
and rather understood, he can handle
man twice his weight and years In
way that simply astonishes the lat
ter; 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 bun
die of wires and as docile as 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 doddles min
iature tom toms, dried betel nuts,
pieces of cork, spools, snake SKINS
stones, cocoanut shells, and tin dishes
everything you can think ola pile
of common things with very uncom-
mon powers, as Ishmael makes them
work.
The young Hindoo is fakir-not
the kind that haunts the street cor
nefs and sells shoestrings and patent
medicines, for they are the creations
of the slang language of the day he
is a real East India fakir, and the
tricks which he does are regarded by
his people as well nigh supernatural!
They have never been solved except
ing when betrayed by some member OF
the race who got drunk on western
fre-water, and exposed the whole
thing. These rascals die suddenly
soon after
One of the best of the tricks is the
growing of bush out of pile of dirt
! in full view of an audience. lshmael
can do it. He did it the other night
up in the Jail when Sheriff Brown gave
him a chance to use his apparatus, 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 a dollar bill a
few minutes before by simply squeez-
Ing it, but that didn't make any dit
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 mangrove tree.
Ishmael first took cloth and placed
it over the earth then he began tc
say off some kind of a heathenish IN
cantation, and in the course of a hall
minute, when he removed the cover,
ing, there was little sprout starting
up about an inch above the pile
That's pretty good. Ishmael smiled
demurely and winked the other eye,
Again Ishmael put the cloth on the
dirt and again he ratified off his rub
bish in choicest Hindoo. Something
suddenly stuck itself up inside the
cloth, which peaked up and wrinkleC
as it did so, and then off came thu
cover with swish and exposed very
healthy young bush standing there il
the dirt
Of course everybody said that tn,
bush was made of paper, but it WASH
1t was real thing, and it was mois
and soft and pithy just as it had beef
newly plucked from the ground out
side. At its bottom was full set o
little roots which were covered will
the clinging earth in which it had
well, grown.
Chief Gilman, who was present, tool
the bush home with him and set it GU
in his garden. He said, on Saturday
that it was getting on well, and that
looked as if it had come to stay. H
can't understand how Ishmael did ii
Neither can anybody else. Some o
the men in the jail declare that tn
youngster is devil in disguise, bu
most of them consider him might.