San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-11-05
IsAMAEL's MANoRove TREE.
A FaciIe Horticulturist from India Works
Wonders In a Maine Jail


Chief Gilman, of the Bangor police
force, has curiosity at his residence on
the west side, which, if it continues to
thrive, will be likely to prove more of a
sensation to people of this vicinity than
anything which may result from the
November election or the continued
fall in the price of lard. This is pretty
little plant, about footin height, which
Ishmael, the circus IIindoo now in the
county Jail here, tricked out of a pile
Of wet dirt up at the prison the other
night. Ishmael is already well known
to our readers. 1t was he who stabbed
the Singalese rascal who dared to ridi-
cule the faith of Brahma, and he got
into Bangor Jail for doing it.
As soon as he struck the Jail he began
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 10 years of age, and
rather understood, he can handle man
twice his weight and years in way
that simply astonishes the latter; there
is no fathoming his tricks forwrestling,
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 n bundle of wires and as
| docile as a child. He is handsome boy,
and he became the pet of the jail in
mates as soon as he got acquainted
! there.
Ishmael brought with him to Jail a
few of his goods and chattels. They are
n queer lot of dinky doddies, miniature
tom toms, dried betel nuts, pieces of
cork, spools, snake skins, stones, Co
coanut shells and tin dishes-every-
thing you can think ola pile of COM
mon things with very uncommon pow
ers, as Ishmael makes them work.
The young Hindoo is fakir-not the
kind that haunts the street corners and
sells shoe strings and patent medicines,
for they are the creations of the slang
language of the day; he is a real East In
| dian fallir, and the tricks which he does
are regarded by his people as well-nigh
supernatural. They have never been
solved excepting when betrayed by
some member of the race who got
drunk on western fire water and ex-
posed the whole thing. These rascals
die suddenly soon after.
One of the best of his tricks is the
growing of a bush out of pile of dirt
| in full view of an audience. Ishmael
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 pipe 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 d seed and
showed it to his audience. This seed
was the same thing from which he had
produced dollar bill few minutes be-
fore by simply squeezing it, but that
didn't make any difference 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 produce a mangrove tree.
it over the earth; then he began to say
off some kind of heathenish incanta-
ton, and in the course of half minute,
when he removed the covering, there
was little sprout starting up about an
inch above the pile. That's pretty good.
Ishmael smiled demurely and winlsed
the other eye.
Again Ishmael put the cloth on the
dirt and again he ratified off his rubbish
in choicest Hindoo. Something sudden
" stuck itself up inside the cloth, which
peaked up and wrinkled as it did so.
and then off came the cover with O
swish and exposed very healthyyoun
bush standing there in the dirt.
OF course everybody said that the
bush was made of paper, but it wasn't.
1t was a real thing, and it was moist and
soft and pithy Just as if it had been
newly plucked from the ground out
side. At its bottom was full set of
little roots which were covered with the
ciinging earth in which it had-well,
grown.
Chief Gilman, who was present, took
the bush home with him and set it out
in his garden. He said on Saturday
that it was getting on well, and that it
looked as if it had come to stay. He
can't understand how Ishmael did it.
Neither can anybody else. Some of the
men in the Jail declare that the young
ster is a devil in disguise, but most Of
them consider him a mighty smart lad.
But he is a great vegetation starter;
he beats super-phosphates at their own
game.
The bush is worth seeing; it is COM
posed of close-growing green leaves on
O straight stalk and little red blossoms
are beginning to grow on the top of it.
It's curiosity.
Ishmael says it's as easy as rolling
off a log.-Bangor Courier.
Frontier Guard e xploits-
The Homeric achievements of the
Bulgarian frontier guards are in fair
way to become proverbial. A few