Evening star., 1905-08-26

saving his chewing tobacco from his asSo-
ciates. who were eternally begging him for
"chaw." Nibbsey made it a rule to carry
his plug Of tobacco in his right-hand pants
pocket. and as he had conscientious scruples
about telling lie he named his left-hand
pocket. in which he never carried the weed.
the world" Meeting an acquaintance
something like this would sometimes occur:
Hello. Nibbsey. old man; give me chew
of tobacco
Il amt got bit in the world" Nibbsey
would reply. fumbling his empty left-hand
pocket which he had named for the uni
verse.
X X X X
Funny way some people have of saying
what they want, even though they have
been brought up on English" said the ele
vator man at the District building the other
day. Il just had big man push in here
and after the car started he sung out that
he wanted a dog tag for his brother Now,
naturally. everybody that heard him knew
what he wanted. Don't suppose his brother
was so bad they had to hang tag on him
before he was let roam about the streets
But there was a general snicker in the car
at the request, and the big man glared at
everybody in the elevator till 1t had gone up
and come down again, because, you see, the
dog-tax office Is on the ground floor, and he
had to stand still and take the laugh till
he got back where he had started"
by the way said one Of the elevator
mans hearers, II think it would be a
mighty good scheme II they would let the
police stations act as offices in collecting
the dog tax. as they do in some towns
Where came from you can walk into any
police station. pay down your little two
dollars and get a tag. 1t saves lot of time
and trouble. There are a lot of people who
don't mind paying dog tax, but who hate
to wade clear down to the District building
and may be stand in line a long time, vast
Ing quarter Of a day over some fool pup
them squander the money on for tag.
They don't mind the money SO much, but II
is nuisance getting the tag
X X
A fraternal society of colored men In this
city, known as the Amalgamated Brick
Makers of America, has in its list of Off
GERS one known as the prosecuting attor-
ney." Just what the duties of the prose-
cutor are was not stated in the handbill
in which his name and title appeared.
An old colored man in South WASHINGTON
evidently of a poetical turn of mind, has q
large and crudely lettered sign in front of
the shanty in which he dispenses cooked
food. 1t reads
Ice cream, oysters and lunch.
And fish by the bunch.
Painted in crooked letters on the wall Of
another lunchery in North Washington Is
this:
Ice Cole Clambs"
X
This seems to be the season Of the year
when the fool killer Is taking a rest" said
the Northwest Washington man to a Star
reporter the other afternoon. "Oh, yes it.
mushrooms again. I just heard of family
Of six near me. all of whom were laid out
cold and clammy the other afternoon from
eating toadstools. but all of whom recov-
cred. Now. I like mushrooms about as
well as anybody. 1 eat them whenever
can. But though I have had good deal
of experience with them, I would no more
think of going out and picking a miscella-
neous lot for my own consumption than
would OF walking into drug store and
ordering a Strychnine frappe as an appe-
tizer. l am perfectly willing to leave mush-
room picking to people who know more
about it than 1 do.
THE case l refer to was an otherwise
very estimable gentleman, plenty old
enough to know better, who went out and
got a basketful of toadstools from one of
the public parks. They were growing under
the trees, which ought to have been warn
ing enough for him. and they did not look
any more like edible mushrooms than they
looked like traction engines. But he took
them home, had them cooked and within
two hours after he and the rest OF his
family had eaten them they were all six
stretched out just about dead. and a neigh
Dor was telephoning for the doctor. 1t took
heroic measures to bring them around,
but they did recover after the closest call
imaginable
Now 1t Is this way. If people want to
firt with the grim destroyer by picking
their own mushrooms the Department Of
Agriculture has a number of publications
with colored plates that show the most of
the poisonous and the harmless ones, and
reduce the chances of death from that sort
of recreation to the minimum. You can
poke all the fun you want to at the
department over leaks of one sort and an
other. but they are pretty well up on mush-
rooms and they are wiling to distribute that
sort of information without charging ad-
vance-news prices on 1t. At the same time
IL you are an amateur, you run a fair
amount Of risk picking your own mush-
rooms even IL you have manual Of botany
along with you.
III 1 want to commit suicide I will jump
Oft the Long bridge or look down a gun
while it is going off. but when I want
mushrooms I will buy them from some one
who knows what to pick. 1t Is early in
the season and this Is the first case of
mushroom poisoning that have run across
In Washington but I suppose there will
be lot more the summer wanes, and If
there are any more recoveries 1t will con-
firm me in my belief that the fool killer is
on a vacation"