The discoverer of the so-called “nonskid peel,” as a casing for the delectable contents guaranteed to be found inside, explains that the new fruit was obtained by crossing the ordinary banana with the cactus pear. Boegle says the new fruit has the usual delicious taste of banana, but that the peeling may be dropped on the sidewalk with perfect safety to pedestrians. If this is the precise case, then the peeling must be “nonskid” on the inside as well as the outer, but this is not to be considered, says a _Blade_ expert, as it is contrary to all horticultural laws, past or present. Therefore, he says, if the “nonskid peel” happens to be dropped with the “nonskid” side downward, then the same old, treacherous, greasy, deadly, never-failing, calamitous thing will no doubt bring down its victims as it has always done since the Duke of Plazzatora, away back in the days and voyages of Christopher Columbus, discovered the banana and also that by craftily laying a strip of its covering in the way of Don Frijolo de Mountebank, he could rid himself of a powerful rival and thus get closer to the new world’s discoverer as well as to the beautiful and charming Donna Isabella de Mendoza, back there in Spain. But time will tell. Boy Banjoist, Local Wonder. Little Victor Vanover is the champion banjoist of the “neck o’ the woods” at Freeling, Va. Though Victor is a mere midget, and has passed only his seventh milepost on the road of life, he can handle his banjo with all the grace and dexterity that ordinarily comes through years of practice, and, what is more to the young musician’s credit, he takes up the instrument in a perfectly natural way, and without any apparent desire to “show off,” and he is well aware of both his powers and limitations. Victor began to practice at the age of five with a natural aptitude, and now he can “pick” any tune that he has ever heard, and that, too, with a clearness that would almost put to shame many professional banjoists. Among the tunes that he can pick may be mentioned: “Cumberland Gap,” “Old Joe Clark,” “Casey Jones,” “The Blind Coon Dog,” “The Ship That Never Returned,” “Sourwood Mountain,” “The Gambling Man,” “New River Train,” and “Walking in the Parlor.” Quicksand Devours Big Plant. Three laborers were killed and eight injured as they fled in terror to solid earth when quicksand devoured the big plant and three surrounding acres of land of the Knickerbocker Cement Co., at Greenport, not far from Hudson, N. Y. Here is a list of what was swallowed by the vortex: A large power house. An eighty-foot concrete smokestack. A concrete storehouse. A large frame barn which held three horses and an automobile, all of which were buried. A huge quantity of material, including forty thousand tons of trap rock. Nick Altrock a Laugh Maker.