By a late mail from Dawson the Stroller received a picture or one of the most enthusiastic appearing vegetable gardens he has ever seen. The garden in question is that of Captain Fitz Horrigan who, by the way, was one of the most patriotic residents Whitehorse ever possessed and his transfer to Dawson was a distinct loss, not only to
Whitehorse, but the vegetable growing industry of Southern Yukon.
In the picture sent the Stroller the genial captain looms up in the center of the garden and can be readily distinguished from the cabbage even by the most casual observer.
Accompanying the picture was a letter from Captain Horrigan who deplored the fact that, as the last boat from Dawson declined to carry freight, the Stroller missed receiving a box containing specimens of the product of the captain's skill both as a horticulturist and agriculturalist. The Stroller deplores the action of the steamboat company probably more acutely than does Captain Horrigan but the former rejoices that the Royal mail service did not decline to bring the picture which now graces the Stroller's table while he gazes upon it as he eats canned vegetables "Specially prepared for the
Klondike." (All oldtimers know the brand. You put your Christmas dinner to soak early in August, changing the water every three weeks, start to boil the first of December and unless you oversleep and neglect to replenish the fire every three hours, it will probably be sufficiently tender to eat by Christmas. )
But to return to Captain Horrigan. His manly form and military bearing do not suggest the horny-handed son of toil, yet he has done more to demonstrate the possibilities of Yukon from an agricultural standpoint than any man within the confines of the territory. The honorable Minister of Agrculture is doubtless all right, but the Stroller wots not but that Captain Horrigan could give him pointers in a discussion of "Alluvial Soil" and how much oxygen ground should contain in order that turnips may grow with that rampant abandon and rutabagas with that come-on-boys enthusiasm which characterize the captain's garden.
As Captain Horrigan passes jauntily along the street one would not suppose he can scent the smell of freshly turned loam for a mile or more. Yet such is the case, and he can also determine from the smell whether the loam is best adapted to the growth of night-blooming cowpeas or those modest and retiring lownecked, one-button-cut-away Mother Hubbard squashes.
When it is considered that Captain Horrigan has by honest toil and the sweat of his manly brow accomplished so much on a small garden, who, even with a piece of chalk and the side of a barn on which to figure, could compute the result were he turned loose on a section of prairie land with a team of mules and an Oliver - Chilled plow. Then would the science of agriculture be revolutionized and tbe world would stand aghast as the captain would, metaphorically speaking, roll majestically by in his turnip-wheeled chariot.
Some years ago and when the Stroller was publishing the Weekly Pumpkin Vine in Florida, there was an exposition held at Jacksonville and every section of the state endeavored to outdo its neighbors in the way of an agricultural exhibit. The Stroller's locality, Wiregrass Ridge, conceived the idea of constructing a massive Goddess of Liberty from the products of that neighborhood. A specialist on Goddesses of Liberty was imported from New York and when his contract was completed he had worked several carloads of vegetables, fruit, cereals and other Wiregrass Ridge products into that
wonderful statue. The Stroller has forgotten the details of the structure but two massive watermelons represented the eyes, proportionate-sized pumpkins were used for breasts and
the entire statue, twenty five feet high and built in proportion, was made up from some product of the soil. But the lifelike appearance of the Goddess proved her undoing. The famous Chinese giant was then visiting America and touring Florida, He fell in love with the Wiregrass Goddess of Liberty and before the fair had been open two weeks, they eloped, and as Wiregrass Ridge had all her season's growth in that Goddess, her people lived on canned goods all the following winter.
The immediately preceding paragraph has nothing to do with Captain Horrigan further than to suggest to him what may be done with products of the soil.
P. S. - Another year, Captain, please do not not wait for the last boat to ship the Stroller samples of the product of your brawn.
