“Oh,” said Bob calmly, “they’ll like it in time—it’s more fun than a cage o’ monkeys.”
“Jes’ so, I don’t think,” said the angry man. “And I’ll tell you what, mister, ef thet thingumbob scares any of them wimmen and children to death, we’ll bring heavy damage suits against the company, that’s what we’ll do.”
“You can’t blow that thing around these diggings any more,” said the superintendent of the Sunday school.
“Now, see here,” said Bob, “you go fetch all the women and little ones over here to the camp and let me demonstrate to them, and if this here whistle isn’t the one big, entertaining feature of your picnic, I’ll promise never to blow her again.”
This was finally agreed upon, and, true to Bob’s claim, the whole crowd found the noisy siren to be “more fun than a cage of monkeys.”
Before breaking up at nightfall the picknickers declared Bob was the hero of the day, and tendered him a vote of thanks.
Even so, the big laugh was reserved to the last. Just as Bob was banking his fire and the crowd were shouting and waving their good-bys and good nights, the faces of three wild-eyed Indians loomed up from behind a clump[Pg 64] of sagebrush and continued to stare with what might be called frozen amazement. When finally induced to speak, one of them said, with a smile, “Injin heap fool. Come much far. All day climb tree when hear noise. No can tell what. Injin heap fool. Odder Injin now much laugh.”
Finds Some Use for Dogfish.
Dogfish are so numerous in Long Island waters that they are cluttering up the fishermen’s lines. No use had been found for them until Roger Carman, of Freeport, N. Y., cut the two little horns off one of the fish and used them for needles on his phonograph.
Carman says these dogfish horns reproduce the records perfectly, without any grating noise, and that there does not seem to be any wear out to them. Contrary to expectations, there was no barking sound, no more than there would be mewing if catfish horns were used.