Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-10-12
IsHMAEL'S MANGROVE TREE.
a Facfle HorticuIturist From India
Works Wonders in n Maine Jail.


From the Bangor Commercial.
Chief Gilman Of the Bangor police force
has a curiosity up 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 cleo
ton or the continued fall in the price Of
lard This is pretty little plant, about a
foot in 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. Ishmael is already well
known to our readers. 1t was he who
stabbed the Singalese 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 antics
he is more of an athlete than has ever
been seen in Bangor. and though he Ia
only nineteen years of age, and rather
undersiZed, he can handle a man twice his
weight and years in a way that simply
astonishes the latter; there is no fathom-
ing 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 a
bundle OF wires and docile 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 a
queer lot of dinky doddles, miniature TOM
! toms, dried betel nuts, pieces of cork
spools, snake skins. stones. cocoanut shells
and tin dishes-everything you can think OF
"a pile OF common things with very IN
common powers, as 1shmael makes them
work
The young Hindoo is a fakir-not the kind
that haunts the street corners and sell,
shoestrings and patent medicines, for they
are the creations of the slang language OF
! the day; he is real East Indian fakir
| and the tricks which he does are regarded
| by his people as we'll nigh supernatural.
| They have never been solved excepting
| 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 1t the other night up in the jail
when Sheriff Brown gave him a chance to
use ms 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 IL in the middle of the
| floor on a cloth. Then ne took what he
| said was seed and showed il TO his small
audience. This seed was the same thing
| from which he had produced a dollar hill
few minutes before by simply squeezing
! 1t, but that didn't make any difference tc
him, but he put 1T in the dirt and got ready
to grow his bush. Nobody thought he wa.
| really going to do ii. He swore that he
| would produce a mangrove tree.
| lshmael first took cloth and placed IL
over the earth: then he began to say on
| some kind OF a 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
! demurey and winked the other eye.
/ in Isl he q O irf
and again he ratified of his rubbish in
| choicest Hindoo. Something suddenly stuck
itself up inside the cloth. which peaked up
and wrinkled as II did so. and then of came
the cover with a swish and exposed a very
healthy young bush standing there in the
dirt. ..--
OF course everybody said that the bush
was made of paper, but II wasn't. 1t was
| real thing, and IL was moist and soft and
pithy just as IL il had been newly plucked
from the ground outside. At its bottom
was a full set of little roots. which were
covered with the .clsnging earth in which IL
had-well. grown.
Chief Gilman, who was present, took the
bush home with him. and set II out in his
garden. He said on Saturday that IL was
! getting on Well. and that 1t looked as IL II
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 youngster is devil In disguise
but most of them consider him mighty
| smart lad.
But he is a great vegetation starter; he
| beats super-phosphates at their own game
| The bush is worth seeing; IL is composed
Of close-growlng green leaves on a straight
| stalk and little red blossoms are beginning
to grow on the top of it. It's a curiosity.
Ishmael says It's easy rolling on a
log.