A TRUE STORY OF THE STREETS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1689, 19 May 1884, Page 2

A TRUE STORY OF THE STREETS.

The other morning two gentlemen were looking out of the window of a house when they observed a cabbage.. roll off a market wagon that was then passing. Instantly over a dozen welldressed and apparently sane persons . began yelling after the- wagon", as if the vegetable.had been a, gold watch. The driver stopped" looked back at the cabbage, yawned, and drove onV " What an absurd fuss people in the street makeover trivial, occurrences," said one of the gentlemen;'HNow, I'll bet you 'a silk hat I could' get a <?t6wclof; fiye hundred persons around that cabbage inside of thirty minutes and yet not leave this room." "I take the bet,"> saidlhis-friend, pulling out his watch. "Are vou ready?" ; '■' "Yes: give the word." "It is now 11.30. Go I" The proposer of. the wager led his friend to the window, threw up the sash, and taking a cauo, pointed earnestly at the mud-covered cabbage with a terrified expression. 'Presently a cabdriver ; noticed the . action, and began tostaio at the vegtablo from tho kerbstone/and then a bootblack stopped, then a billposter, a messenger boy, and a merchant.' ■•,..•.:•;• "What's the matter?" inquired a German, approaching the innocent base of his national dish. "Don't touch it I Look out there! Stand back!" shouted the gentleman at the window. At his horror-stricken tones the orowd fell back precipitately, and formed a dense circle round the innocent cabbage. Hundreds came running up and the excitement increased rapidly. " Look out there !" frantically screamed the bettor waiving his cane. ; "Take that dog away, quick 11!...,I 1 !..., Several stones wore thrown at a cur thatwas sniffing around tho cabbage. 'I Take care I" said a cabdrivor to a policeman who was shouldoring his way. through the mass. fernal machine, nitro-glycerine—or something."' Meanwhile the pavement was blocked, the street becamo impassable, women screamed and rushed into the shops, and a shopkeeper began to'tie a bucket at the end of a pole with which to pour water on the devilish invention.

The crowd by this time numbering over a thousand, the two 'gentlemen moved away from the window and sat down, In a few moments there was a hurried tap at the door, and ..there ap. peared a man who had been sent as a delegate from the mass meeting outside. "I should like to know, gentlemen, what the facts are," ho said. ' ' "What facts f " Why, what there is peculiar about that cabbago out there!" . "Nothing in tho world," was' the soft reply," except that it seems to he surrounded by about a thousand of the biggest fools in town, Do anything else for you 1" The man reflected a moment, said he thought not, and retired.—Tit Bits.