A GREAT ACHIEVEMENT.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 3158, 17 May 1883, Page 3

A GREAT ACHIEVEMENT.

A persevering genius has lately been trying to entice the public somewhere up into the wilds of Hackney to see the results of seven yearsi accumulation of cigar ends, picked up by him chiefly m the course of his daily tramp to and . : from the place of his employment. Many carious facts and figures hare been giyen of what is habtaalhr done : s ia Paris in this way, bntm London,

though there are those who are not above snapping up these trifles, it is not done systematically. Tbe individual alluded to has, however, thrown his whole energies into the noble, and no doubt lucrative, ambition of making a vast hord of cigar ends, and his accomplishment is certainly not without interest. During the seven years he reckons that he has travelled on foot between Lis house and the London Docks an aggregate distance of 11,823 miles, and by continually keeping bis nose turned to earth, some'hing after the manner of John Biinyau’s man with the rake, he has, during these travels and_ in casual walks abroad, managed to pick up 600,000 pieces af cigar of an average length of an inch and a half. He reckons —and those, who feel curious as to the accuracy of his arithmetic are at liberty to test it for themselves —that his stock of.pieces, if placed end to end, would measure 13 4 . miles. At three-halfpence each, the cost of the cigars must have been originally £3750, and the portions wasted £IBOO. He purposes selling them, but has been issuing printed hills inciting spectators to come and see his stock before he does so, probably anticipating that his singular persistency will meet with pecuniary reward. How little do we know of what human nature is capable when dominated by a grand idea!—“Globe.”