The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-10-09
IsHMAEL's MANGROyE TREE.
A FaciIe HorticuIturist from India
Works wonders in Maine Jail.

From the Bangor Commercial.
Chief Gilman Of the Bangor police force
has a curiosity up at his residence on the
west side of 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 No
vember election or the continued fall In
the price of lard. This is a pretty little
plant, about a foot in hight, which Ism
mael, the circus Hindoo now in the coun-
ty Jail here, tricked out of a pile of wet
dirt up at the prison the other night.
Ishmael is already we'll known to our
readers. 1t was he'who stabbed the SIN
galese rascal who dared ridicule 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 an
tics. 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 a man twice
| his weight and years in a way that SIM
| ply astonishes the latter; there is no ia
| thoming his tricks of wrestling, for he
| has catches and holds that have been
! handed down in the dinner circles of his
| race for many generations. He Is as solid
| as a bundle OF wires and as docile as a
| child. He is a handsome boy, and he be-
| came the pet of the Jail inmates about
as soon as he got acquainted there.
| Ishmael brought with him to jail few
| of his goods and chattels They are a
| queer lot of dinky doddies, miniature 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 uncommon powers, as Ishmael makes
| them work.
The young Hindoo is a fakir-not the
| kind that haunts the street corners and
sells shoestrings and patent medicines, for
| they are the creations of the slang lam
| guage of the day; he is real East Indian
| fakir, and the tricks which he does are re-
| garded by his people as well nigh super
natural They have never been solved ex-
cepting when betrayed by some member
of the race who got drunk on western fire.
water and exposed the whole thing. These
rascals die suddenly soon after.
One of the best of the tricks is the grow
ing of a bush out of a 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 "a little piece of sand and
mud which had been brought for him in
the Jail yard underneath the window
/
! tricks every day and placed it in the mid
die of the floor on a cloth Then he took
what he said was a seed and showed it to
his small audience his seed was the
same thing from which he had produced
| a dollar bill few minutes before by sim
| ply squeezing it, but that didn't make any
/ difference to him, but he put IL in the
dirt and got ready to grow his bush. No
body thought he was really going to do
| II. He swore that he would produce a man.
grove tree.
Ishmael first took a cloth and placed it
over the earth; then he began to say off
! some kind of a heathensh Incarnation.
and in the course of a half minute. when
he removed the covering, there was a
little sprout starting up about an inch
above the pile. That's pretty good Ish-
mael smiled demurely and winked the
! other eye.
Again Ishmael put the cloth on the dirt.
and again he ratified off his rubbish in
choicest Hndoo. Something suddenly
stuck itself up inside the cloth, which
peaked up and wrinkled as 1t did So,
and then Off came the cover with a swish,
and exposed very healthful young bush
standing there in the dirt.
or course, everybody said that the bush
| was made of paper, but ii wasn't. IL was
a real thing, and It was moist and soft
and pithy just as IL it had been newly
plucked from the ground outside. At it's
| bOhAoAA Was a AAAA set VI AlAtlc IOOlSs
which we're covered with the clinging
earth in which II had-well, grown.
Chief Gilman, who was present, took
tho bush home with him and set II out
in his garden. He said on Saturday that
it was getting on well and that it looked
as II IL had come to stay. He can't I'M
derstand how Ishmael did It. Neither
can anybody else. Some Of the men In
the jail declare that the youngster is a
devil in disguise. but most of them con-
slider him a mighty smart lad.
But he Is n great vegetation starter:
he beats super-phosphates at their own
| game.
The bush Is worth seeing: II is COM
| posed Of ciose-growing green leaves on
straight stalk, and little red blossoms
are beginning 10 grow on the top OF IT,
| It's curiosity.
Ishmael says it's easy as rolling off a
! log.
-AlthOunh the salary Of tho Lgtp- -