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AN INDIAN FAKIR’S TRICK.
An officer of the British army, who
served in India with* the Seventh and
the Fourteenth Hussars was spending
a few weeks in New York. Some
friends were talking with him about
India and his experiences there, and
the conversation turned to Indian fa¬
kirs and their wonderful performances.
“These fellows do perform some ex¬
traordinary tricks,” said the British
officer, “but extraordinary as they are,
the tricks are not so fearfully wonder¬
ful as some of the stories of them
which are brought away from India by
the tourists who learn all about India
and its people in the course of a few
weeks’ sojourn in some of the coast
towns.
“As a matter of fact, the greatest of
tbe fakirs are never seen in the towns
and cities. Their religion and super¬
stition will not permit them to wander
from their native haunts, and only
those who have traveled or lived in
tbe wildest and most remote parts of
India have witnessed the performances
of tiie really great tricks of the fakirs.
“You mv.-t remember at the ouset
that the real thing, to use an. Ameri¬
canism, in the wav of a Hindoo fakir is
m man of secrets and of strange habits.
Me loves, or affects to love, solitude,
and he works upon the superstitions of
his fellows in performing what are re¬
garded by the other Hindoos as sure-
enough miracles. He lives in com¬
parative seclusion, existing on heav¬
en knows what.
“Of course, at every opportunity, he
extorts whatever he may from his fel¬
lows, but that is not much. And,
shunning as he does the cities, it is
only for a verturesome foreign hunter
that he may now and then perform and
get any considerable backsheesh. In
his native state he is the filthiest hu¬
man being 1 ever clapped my eyes on,
and by long habit he has fallen into
a chronic state of weirdness, so to
speak.
“Report travels much more rapidly
than one would suppose in the moun¬
tains of India, and once a party of for¬
eign sportsmen or travelers appears
in the up country, a fakir is not long
In striking the spoor and he keeps
to it until he comes up with the strang-
ers. At such times the fakir usually
travels with a small hoy and a dirty
bag filled with a promiscuous jumble
of nuts, shells, trick paraphernalia and
what not.
“The first time 1 ever met a no-dis-
eount fakir was in a wild, unfrequent¬
ed part of India, where two other offi¬
cers of the regiment, an army surgeon
and myself, had gone on a hunting
trip. We had spent the day beating
for a tiger, which got away, and had
returned to camp tired and out of
sorts. Taking an early dinner, for we
were horribly hungry, we sat down
outside the tent to smoke our cheroots.
“Suddenly, just before sundown, we
noticed an uncanny looking person
coming toward us, grinning like a
black devil, salaaming at every step,
and mubllng something which none of
us could understand. We knew, of
course, that our visitor was one of
the mountain fakirs, and we calmly
waited for him to proceed to business.
“As he put down his bag with great
deliberation, the boy accompanying
him curled himself on the ground and
seemed to be paying attention to noth¬
ing in particular. After a little the
old codger produced, seemingly from
nowhere, a ball of ordinary cotton
string, which had once been white,
such string as shopkeepers ordinarily
use to tie up light parcels with.
“The man’s hair was gray, and his
hide was as black as Erebhs. He wore
& dirty turban and loin cloth, which
two articles constituted his apparel.
The boy’s outfit was no less elaborate.
“After tossing the ball of string
about for a while—it was about the
size of a billiard ball—he threw it high
into the air, retaining the free end of
the string in his hand. Up and up and
up went the ball, growing smaller and
smaller the higher it traveled, until
it disappeared from sight altogether.
To all appearances it bad sailed up un¬
til it reached" the nearest stratum of
clouds and disappeared behind it. It
was the mightiest ball throwing we
had ever seen and was quite sufficient
to attract our attention to anything
that the old boy might subsequently
do—and that was just what he wanted.
“As soon as the ball had disappeared,
the fakir let go the free end of the
string and there we had a line of
cotton twine extending from about
fiv-e feet from the ground up to the
Lord knew where. When the old man
found that the ball remained up in
the air, refusing absolutely to come
down, no matter how wildly he gestic¬
ulated or how loudly he yelled at it,
he was apparently much annoyed.
“He tugged and tugged at the cord,
but he couldn’t pull the ball out of
space, and as an evident last resort,
he called the boy, told him to climb the
cord and bring the ball down. Then
we saw the old,-climbing ^spectacle hand of a boy 12 hand or
14 years over
up a line of cotton twine about the
size of a large pin.
Up and up, higher and higher, the
urchin went, climbing as a sailor
climbs a rope, until he, too, had dis-
appeared behind the clouds which hid
the ball. When last we saw him, he
looked to be just about as big as the
ball did when it disappeared.
“As soon as the urchin disappeared
there was more trouble for the fakir.
The boy appeared very well satisfied
with the roosting place he had found
and the old man was no more success¬
ful in getting him back to earth than
he had been with the hall of twine.
Then we did have a sample of splen¬
did rage.
“The old rascal worked himself up
into a perfect fury. He yelled and
danced and gesticulated and gave the
best exhibition of a human demon that
I ever saw. By way of heightening the
effect and increasing our interest in
the show, he dropped into broken but
intelligible English, the substance of
which was:
“ ‘Am 1 to be made an idiot of by a
ball of string and a fool by a chok-
cra (small boy)? Allah forbid! I will
them both teach that they may not
trifle with one so old and so wise.’
“Then rushing to the filthy old bag
that had been lying all this time on
the ground, he thrust an arm into it
and drew forth the most murderous
looking knife I ever saw. It had a
curved blade about nine inches long,
three inches across at the hilt and ta¬
pering to a fine point. Placing the
knife between his teeth and grasping
the twine In both hands the old boy,
showing marvellous agility for one of
his apparent age, went up the cord as
the boy had, hand over hand, and in
less time than it takes to tell it he, too,
had disappeared from view.
“He had us all going by this time,
and we just sat there gaping up into
the air like a lot of precious idiots.
There was a second’s absolute silence,
and then an agonizing yell, so piercing
that it sunk into one’s very bones. An¬
other second, which seemed like an
ag*?, and then we saw a dark object
come hurtling down from the sky.
Down and down it came until it landed
only a few feet from us with a sick¬
ening sort of thud.
“Looking to see what it was, we saw
the head of the boy who had climbed
the cord lying there, severed from the
body at about the middle of the neck.
A closer examination showed that the
face wore a horrible expression, while
the scarlet blood poured from the di¬
vided arteries and the dark venous
blood from the veins. The twitching
of the newly cut muscles and the wind¬
pipe, and the cleanly severed joints of
two of the cervical vertebrae were
quite plain to the army surgeon and to
the rest of us, all of whom knew a,
little of anatomy from the field hos¬
pitals.
“We hadn’t by any means got over
the shivery feeling we experienced at
seeing the head of the late urchin,
when down came an arm, cut off
through the shoulder joint and giving
all the anatomical relations in that
part quite plainly. A moment later
the other arm dropped at our feet and
an examination showed that it had
been cut off in exactly the same way.
The doctor said the old rascal carved
cleverly enough to have been a surgeon
at the Royal college.
“We were about ready for anything
after that, and so were not particularly
surprised when a leg, severed at the
hip joint and exposing the head of
femur, the muscles twitching just as
you may have seen them twitch in a
freshly killed animal, came along. The
other leg followed in due time and
then came the trunk.
“A moment later the old man was
seen coming down the string, and
when he dropped to the ground from
the end of it he was literally covered
with gore from head to foot. The knife,
still held between his teeth, was fair¬
ly dripping with blood. His eyes ap¬
peared wilder than ever, his features
drawn, and he paced back and forth
for a few seeopds like a chained tiger.
“Then he collected the head, limbs
and trunk and tossed them into the
old bag. While watching this action
we lost sight of the string and the
knife and never saw them again. Sling¬
ing the bag over his shoulder, he
walked away. We knew this was only
a bluff, because he hadn’t yet received
any backsheesh and we knew he never
would depart without that.
“He had only moved off a few paces
when we saw that something was mov¬
ing inside the bag. The old man
stopped, put on a surprised expression,
but the bag down on the ground, and
in a moment out crawled the boy as
sound in wind and limb as he had ever
been.
“The boy began to smile, and the old
man, smiling and salaaming, came
toward us for his money. This he got
in a very liberal amount, and off he
went, leaving us standing there, mys¬
tified, confused, flabbergasted.
“We looked about for traces of the
recently committed tragedy, but
where the ground had been red with
blood a moment before not a trace of
it was left There was not the slight¬
est bit of doubt that the boy had been
carved up and there was not the slight¬
est doubt that he had as miraculously
come to life again.
“About tbe carving, the rest of us
might have been mistaken, but yon
couldn’t fool the doctor. He had been
cold blooded enough to pick up the
' different members of the body as they
! had come tumbling down from the sky,
had examined them and was perfectly
positive that the dismemberment had
taken place and had been the work of
a skilful surgeon, or student of anato¬
my. That was one of the few perform¬
ances that I ever saw of the real, gen¬
uine Hindoo fakirs of the Indian
wilds.”
"But how do you account for it all?”
asked one of the British army officers’
friends.
’’Why, there is only one way to ac¬
count for it,” was the reply. "We were
simply mesmerized or hypnotized by
the old boy and placed in such a men¬
tal state that we imagined the whole
performance really had been enacted.”
‘•But how about the army doctor,
who handled the dismembered parts?”
asked some one else.
“Oh, he was befuddled just like the
rest of us. He thought he handled
stray arms and legs and heads and
trunks, whereas he didn’t do anything
of the kind.”
“Maybe Englishmen in India can be¬
come thus mentally twisted,” said the
first inquirer, “but I'm blamed if I be¬
lieve anybody else can. Either you
saw a miracle performed or the whole
blessed lot of you were jagged.”—New
York Sun.
A MODERN CUSTOM.
European Discussion of Finger-glass
Etiquette.
The use of finger glasses after din¬
ner is quite a modern innovation in
Germany, introduced from England.
Until about 10 years ago glasses were
indeed brought round at dessert at
the very end of the meal, but this
was for the purpose of rinsing the
mouth, and a very comical sight it
was indeed to see gentlemen and la¬
dies in plain dress, or en grande ten-
ue, washing their mouths at a sump¬
tuously furnished table—or for the
ipatter of that, in any private or pub¬
lic assembly room—instead of retir¬
ing to some private chamber for this
purpose. In Bavaria it often happens
that persons of talent, but without
much knowledge of the manners of
what is called polite society, are in¬
vited to dine with royalty, and not
unseldom has the mistake above re¬
ferred to been made there. The fol-
lowing little anecdote, however, con¬
tains the details of a practical joke
played by a number of artists on a
colleague still living who had for the
first time received an invitation to
dine with the prince regent at the
Schloss at Munich.
Several masters of the brush had
received similar invitations, and as
the painter in question was somewhat
elated and excited by the honor con¬
ferred upon him, and at the same
timt singularly nervous and inquiring
as to the way he would be expected
to behave at the royal table, his con¬
freres put their heads together and
determined to play a practical joke
upon him. He was accordingly told:
“The first time anybody is invited to
dine at court a special drink is handed
round in glass bowls, and the newly
invited guest is expected, according to
strict etiquette, to take one of these
bowls in his hand and to rise and ex-
claim, ‘I drink to the health of his
royal highness,’ and then to quaff the
contents of the bowl at a draught,
make a profound bow toward the
prince regent and so resume his
seat.” The gentleman in question
acted to the letter according to the
instruction given him. To the man¬
ners of the court must be attributed
the suppresson of all suspicion of a
giggle, and it is stated that the royal
host did not appear in the least dis¬
concerted, but afterward over the
beer the merriment was unrestricted.
—London Telegram.
He Yielded.
It was once usual for Highland shep¬
herds to take their dogs into church
and leave them outside the pews. Two
shepherds at enmity sat on opposite
sides of the aisle one Sunday, and
soon after the sermon began, the
dogs—one a collie and the other not—•
seemed to enter into their masters’
quarrel. The shepherds egged on
their dogs in undertones, and soon
there was a real fight in progress.
Most of those in the immediate neigh¬
borhood craned their necks over the
pews to see how the encounter was
coming out, and not a few were stand¬
ing up. The minister’s patience was
unlimately exhausted, and so he called
to his hearers and said:
“Ah, weel, my britherin, I see ye are
more interested in the dog fight than
in my sermon and so I’ll close the
buike—and I’ll bet half a crown ou
the collie!”—Waverley Magazine,
An Artist at Seventeen.
Briton Riviere is probably the only
living artist who exhibited at the Roy¬
al Academy while still at school.
When he was a Cheltenham boy of 17
two of his pictures, “Sheep on the
Cotswold” and “Tired Out,” appeared
on the academy walls; and six years
earlier, when a lad of 11, he had ex¬
hibited two pictures, “Love at First
Sight” and “Kitten and Tomtit,” at
the British Institute. For “Robinson
Crusoe,” which he painted when he
was 12, he received the very gratifying
sum of $100.
Qeorgia.'.Cullings
Brief Bot Interesting Summary
of Happenings in the State.
To Hire Expert Detective.
The people of DeKalb county want
the murderer of little Berta Jackson
brought to justice, and a fund has
been started to defray the expenses of
a search for the criminal. This step
was taken by the coroner’s jury that
met a day or two ago in Decatur, after
a wait of nearly three weeks, in the
hope that some evidence might be ob¬
tained in that time. When it was seen
at this last meeting that there would
have to be an investigation made by a
person skilled in the procuring of evi¬
dence, the members of the jury started
a subscription. While there was some
effort to conceal the fact, it is known
that detectives will be placed at work
on the case and that they will be in¬
structed to follow every clue to the
very last.
Resolutions By Cotton Growers.
The second annual meeting of the
Georgia Cotton Growers’ association
held in Macon the past week was at¬
tended by growers from various parts
of the state, and it was a representa¬
tive body of men. The personnel of
the convention was as fine as the pur¬
pose of the meeting, and the farmers
went home feeling that they had been
greatly benefited by wkat they had
heard.
The nominating committee recom¬
mended the following officers for the
coming year, and they were elected:
William A. Broughton, president,
Madison; Dudley M. Hughes, vice pres¬
ident, Danville; jonn Bostwick, secre¬
tary and treasurer, Morgan county.
The following resolutions were
passed:
“Resolved, That it is the sense of
this convention that the largest possi¬
ble membership in the quickest possi¬
ble time is the essence of our success
in this movement.
“Resolved, That the Cotton Growers’
Protective Association of Georgia
should immediately and energetically
proceed to organize a branch of this
association in every county and militia
distret in this state, and that one or
more able and efficient organizers
should quickly be placed in each con-
gressional district, to the end that our
membership may be speedily built up,
0 f all citizens who are interested in
growing cotton, especially farmers and
land owners.
“Resolved, That the president and
executive committee proceed immedi¬
ately to put in force the foregoing reso¬
lutions.”
The following preamble and resolu¬
tions were also adopted:
“Whereas, the director of the twelfth
United States census has announced
his willingness to make annually a
complete canvass of the cotton ginned
in the United States through the
agency and co-operation of the gin-
ners, and
“Whereas, We believe that such an
annual canvass will resuu. in more ac¬
curate and satisfactory statistics of
the actual cotton crop than have here-
tofore been obtained, and thereby elim¬
inate detrimental influences; therefore
be it
“Resolved, That this convention of
the state of Georgia heartily indorse
the plan of Director Merriam for per¬
fecting and modernizing the statistics
of the cotton crop; that this conven¬
tion urge the cotton ginners through¬
out the cotton belt, whose interests
are identical with tnose of the grower,
to co-operate with the census office in
Its efforts to collect true annual statis¬
tics of the cotton crop, by making
early and accurate replies to their re¬
quests for information, to the end
^hat t rue interests of the producers
may properly promoted and pro¬
tected.”
* * #
Sheriff Merrill Commended.
The meeting of the Georgia sheriffs,
clerks of court, police chiefs, marshals
and solicitor generals at Columbus the
past week was interesting from begin¬
ning to end. The body adjourned to
meet the second Wednesday in July
next in Atlanta.
Perhaps the most interesting thing
done by the convention was the unani¬
mous adoption of the following resolu¬
tion, offered by Solicitor S. P. Gilbert,
of the Chattahoochee circuit:
“Resolved, That this association
heartily commends the brave devotion
to duty shown recently by Sheriff Mer¬
rill, of Carroll county, in risking his
life to protect a prisoner in the county
jail from an infurated mob. We con¬
gratulate the people of his county that
they had the wisdom to select such a
man to office, and we feel honored to
have such a man as a Georgia sheriff.”
* * *
Father Takes His Son's Place.
A few days ago Governor Candler re¬
ceived the resignation of Judge Frank
P. Longley, of the Troup county court,
and appointed Judge Frank M. Long-
ley, his father, to succeed him.
The resignation of Judge Longley, it
is said, was due to ill health. It was
not ge 'lliim i«HML known Kvs real thnt ho ion would reached va-
cate th gnat
the ex in duo and he-
fore a i*^®^P^oould submit their
names ftr consideration as appointees
to the judgeship Governor Candler had
named the successor by placing the
father in the seat of his son.
Shortage In Melon Crop.
From the reports of commission
brokers, railroad men and others who
handle the watermelon crop It seems
that there is considerable shortage this
year In the Georgia melons.
Property Values 8how Increase.
The first returns made by receivers
of taxes In the different counties for
the year 1901 reachr«1 the office of
Comptroller General W. A. Wright last
Saturday. Clinch anu Stewart, both
south Georgia counties and both par
ticipatlng largely in the industrial
prosperity throughout that section,
were the first to get in their returns.
Both counties show a marked and
decided increase in property values.
With a total return of $1,821,620 Stew¬
art county has made an increase of
$99,000 over last year. Clinch, with an
aggregate return of $935,292, has an in¬
crease Oi. $38,000. The increase in both
counties is the largest, returned by
them in a number of years and is ac¬
cepted as a welcome indication of the
prosperity now enjoyed by south Geor¬
gia.
Last y«ar the total increase in prop¬
erty values all over the state was ap¬
proximately $15,000,000. From the ear¬
liest indications, those coming from
south Georgia, state officials believe
that the increase this year will go as
high, if not higher, than last year.
The tax receivers of the different
counties have until August 1st to send
in their returns. As is always the case,
the gains that are expected to make
the total what it will be will come
from the counties with large centers of
population, like Fulton, Chatham, Rich-
mon, Muscogee, Floyd and Bibb.
*
Georgia Day at Buffalo.
Saturday was Georgia day at the
great Pan-American exposition at Buf¬
falo.
Several hundred Georgians were at
the Temple of Music when the special
session of the Georgia delegation was
called to -order. It looked much like
one of the ceremonial days of the At¬
lanta exposition from the sea of fa¬
miliar Georgia faces that beamed down
upon the platform upon which were
seated the speakers of the occasion.
The exercises began at 10 o’clock.
The meeting was presided over by H.
H. Cabaniss, of Atlanta.
The first speaker of the occasion
was introduced by the chairman. He
was Hon. Norman E. Mack, of The
Buffalo Times. He welcomed the Geor¬
gians on behalf of the people of Buf¬
falo. His speech was enthusiastically
received and he was given a genuine
old Georgia reception.
To this address of welcome, Mr. W.
S. Coleman, of Cedartown, Ga., re¬
sponded. He thanked the people of
Buffalo for the cordial reception that
had been given the party of editors and
assured them that if they would only
come to Georgia they would be given
an old-fashioned barbecue and a view
of the red old hills of the Empire State
of the South.
One of the principal addresses of the
occasion was delivered by Director
General Buchanan, of the exposition
company, who welcomed the editors to
the Pan-American exposition.
Assistant Commissioner of Agricul¬
ture Wright, Pleasant A. Stovall, of
Savannah; W. A. Hemphill, John Tem¬
ple Graves, T. J. Simmons, Jr., and H.
H. Cabaniss were the other speakers.
Sunday the party visited Niagara
Falls and Toronto and Monday the
members began to leave for home.
MONEY NOT RECOVERABLE.
Losses From Be?* On Horse Faces
Must stand Without, Recourse.
At Indianapolis Thursday Federal
Judge Baker ruled that betting on the
futurity price of commodities is not
betting on a game under the Indiana
law, and money so lost cannot be re¬
covered. Election bet3 cannot be re¬
covered. The ruling was in a suit to
recover money from the Odell Commis¬
sion Company, of Cincinnati.
Fire Destroys Big'Barrel Plant.
The plant of tUe Michigan Barrel
Company at Grand Rapins, was de-
strayed by fire Thursday night. Loss
$100,000, half Insured. It was the larg¬
est plant of its kind in existence.
Oldest Consul Dead.
Horatio J. Sprague, consul at Gibral¬
tar, and the eldest consul In the
American service, died at his post
Thursday.
Telephone Combine Organized.
Representatives of seventeen inde¬
pendent telephone companies and ex¬
changes in Texas, Indian Territory
and Oklahoma met at Fort Worth Wed¬
nesday morning and formed a perma¬
nent organization. „ ,