The daily Alaskan., 1913-03-27
A PUMPKIN EPISODE
 By M. QUAD Copyright, 1913, by Associated Lit e-ary Press

 you had arrived in the village of Graf ton in certain middle state you would have found a restful, peaceful place. No one rushed about. No one talked politics. No one argued over Jonah and the whale. There were no quar rels among men or dogs. If you had asked Deacon Somers what thrilling event had happened in Grafton in the last twenty yearB be would have taken five minutes to reflect and then slowly answered.:
 "WGal, l can't think of nawthin 'cept the Baptist church being struck by llghtnin'?'
 In that same year a man trayeleo over rood part Jf Indiana and Illinois buy ing pumpkin seeds of farmers. He offered I5 cents pound for all they would send him in the fall to certain address in Chicago, and if a farmer wanted some money in advance to pro tect himself he got it.
 It was the same man that had bought he seeds several hundred miles away that appeared fin Grafton early In Jan uary Of the next year. He had come to herald the fact that great medical discovery had beer made by accident, as most great things are. It WIS that the seeds of a certain pumpkin grown nowhere else except along the Lybian desert were a sure cure for Indigestion, liver troubles, kidney ailments, nerv- ousness and a dozen other things They would positively prevent con sumption and cancer and all sorts Of levers.
 MT. White had a few of the seeds with him. They were chocolate color ed instead of a yellow white. They could be had only in Chicago, and no order exceeding a peck would be filled. Just hold a seed in the mouth for hVe minutes and then chew 1t down.
 Grafton woke up Bell county woke up. Other counties woke up. A full page ad. in the local papers woke the editors up. Talk about bOoms and a raise of 20 per cent In real estate! Why, here was a gold mine, and every body owning an acre of ground was going to become a millionaire inside of two years,
 Dh the conGding public send away to Chicago for the Lybiar seeds? You bet they did! They got 'em by the hun dred, the pint, the quart and the peck Some men made the trip there and back that they might plead in person for a larger quantity than the circular allotted. The letters going west aver aged thirty per day for months.
 The editors said that Mir. White was an honest man and the crying need Of the country was more like him.
 Mir White himself didn't say much. He was too busy signing contracts to do much gabblng. What he did say, and with much feeling, was that he hoped the people would not forget him after he had departed.
 They haven't yet and probably never will
 The village of Grafton had four pret- ty fair doctors. At the beginning of things they called Mir. White liar, faker and . fraud. His reply was that when Harvey discovered the circula- ton of the blood men wanted to mob him for a charlatan. The doctors de nied the curative properties of his Lyb- ian pumpkin seeds. He replied that for years aSd years the medical fra ternity had fought shy of quinine.
 No, they didn't get anything on MT. White to scare him out of town be- tween two days. He was right on the job all the time, and the doctors suffer ed in prestige instead of gaining. It was probably one of the four that wrote a letter to Washington that brought an inspector to Grafton to see if the postal laws were being broken. He came and saw and went away. He said that somebody had to get the money of the Uncle Rubes of the cOun- try and he could see no difference be- tween Mir. White and the brokers of Wall street.
 As spring approached and the snow began to go and the people to get ready for pumpkin seed planting there came to Grafton one day professor from the State Agricultural college. He had heard of the seeds and wanted to see them. They were shown him, and he promptly identified them as the seeds of American pumpkins.
 But they are not a yellow-white," was protested.
 That's because they have all been dyedr
 "But these surely came from a des- ert."
 How do you make that out"
 "They feel sandy"
 Couldn't sand be sifted over themP
 "Sir," said Mir. White to the profes- sor In a quiet and even voice, "are you prepared to substantiate your allega- tiOns in a court of law?" "Yps I s0v they are American pump-