The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-07-19
MELON JAGS IN SLoWBR00K.
CID MAN JOHNsON's EXPERIMENT
STARTS A TOWN BOOM.
ond They Seem to Like It-Fame of
the First One Drew Attention to
SIOwbroOk, and johnson Is Now
MINOR of the booming Town.
From the New York Sun.

T rum Nnt New 10TH sun
You have all seen those jumping beans
the fakirs are selling" remarked the Wis
sting citizens of Slowbrook Now, have
you ever seen watermelons act that way?
Never head Of them? Why, the story of
Old Man Johnsons melons is family his
tory down our way.
johnson wasn't much of a farmer but
he did know how 10 raise melons, and his
melon patch wos known to every darkey
for fifty miles around. He took uncom-
mon pride in his melons, too, and when
he read in one of the New York papers
about being able to flavor a melon by
drawing one end Of a string through the
stem and allowing the other end 10
remain in a bottle filled with the desired
flavor, he just chuckled with happiness,
and went down to the station and bought
up all the papers containing the story
That spring Johnson spent more time and
care than ever on his melon patch, and he
got mighty mysterious about it, too
'One evening just about the season that
melons begin TO ripen, the crowd around
the postoffice were startled by most I'M
earthly cries and yells, and a great big
darby came tearing down the road, run
ming like mad, his eyes sticking out and
his color about three shades lighter than
natural We corralled him all right as
he went to dash past but il was about
forty minutes before we could get any
thing but groans from him. We then
learned that he had been out to Johnson's
melon patch, and, according to his story.
the melons were ali alive and tried 10
CATCH him. We thought right off that
Johnson had rugged up some kind of a
contrlVance to scare off negroes, and as
we were all planters, we started out TO
see the thing work. We hadn't gone 100
yards before another scared darkey came
down the road, and then another, and an
other. until five had passed us going
about as fast as the Lord allowed. and
a little extra
And them melons! Well, by all the rat
tiers and kings of moccasins. we could
hardly believe our eyes There was a field
OF about six acres, just covered with
mashed and broken melons, while in the
center was the most monstrous big melon
that ever was. And that melon was going
round like drunken man; it would 90
up on one end. wabble a little and go
over; it would roll two or three times. go
up on the other end and repeat the per-
tonnance. That melon was a s we after
ward found out feet inches long and
feet inches round. 1t had rolled around
until the ground for half an acre was as
smooth and hard as stone, while the
vine upon which it grew was all twisted
up like rope and was as big as YOU arm.
while every other melon in it's path was
busted wide open. That did look like spir-
its, sure, and we just stood and looked
at that thing go bouncing over the ground
for about half an hour.
Then Harry, he's the blacksmith, pro-
poses seeing what moved her Well 1t
rolled six of us about considerably be-
fore we at last got her quiet, and just as
We were about to cut into IT, up comes
Johnston crying like mad, and threaten
ing to shoot every one of us if we didn't
let go his big melon. OF course wet let
go, and then watched Johnson He
wouldn't have IL. though, and was going
to have all kinds of law and buckshot
on us if we didn't move off
I'VE smeled a mouse right off when
he tore about that way so we pretended
TO go home, but after going down the
road alb ut a mile we came back through
the woods, and getting on the edge of the
Gearing watched the old man. He must
have expected some such move for he
walked all around his patch twice before
anything occurred. Then I'm blessed if
the Old fellow didn't bring out demi-
john of whisky and going to tin pan
half buried in the ground he poured about
quart into IT, No sooner had this been
done than that big melon began to topple
toward that pan, and never came to rest
until one erd was directly over it, when
Johnson unwound what looked like a
string, and let one end go into The liquo-
we just couldn't stand for that and
out of the woods we rushed, and john
sons secret was out. The old fellow had
been growing that melon on a whisky
diet just as he had read about, and he
had certainly got a whopper
He was mad clear through, but we lust
laughed and watched that melon OF
course We told others, and people for
miles around came to see Johnson's mel
on. 1t brought so many people that John
son built high fence around it, and
charged 10 cents 10 see it. The people had
to stay somewhere, and the hotel had to
build on four-story addition Two new
stores started up. and we got 800 new set
tiers.
Then agricultural professors from
Washington and the colleges began to
come around, and our women folks took
10 pink teas, and began playing golf
Things were on the boom, and johnson
had just built a new house, and had
money in the bank, when we were all
startled one morning by the. news that
the wonderful melon had ceased its ey-
rations. And ceased she had; the old man
wept and tore his hair, and fairly soaked
the ground with whisky but il was no
use. That afternoon we held a cutting
bee. There were half a dozen professors
and all kinds of smaller fry and every
one of us had to pay So
old Johnson couldn't get up the nerve
to do the cutting, so one of the city dudes
handled the knife. Well for about an
eighth Of an inch he cut all right. and
then he struck the toughest sort of cut
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