New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1858-03-15


The following admirable illustration Is from the
~Autocrat Of the Breakfast Table, in the pages of
DIE Atlantic Monthly:
Did YOU never, in walking IN the fields. come across
q Hat stone which bad lain, nobody knows how long.
fust where YOU found it, with the grass forming a
little hedge it were. all round It, close to its edges
and have you not, in obedience to kind Of feeling
that told you it had been lying there long enough,
INSULATED your stick, or your foot, your fingers
under its edge and turned it over as housewife
turns cake, when she says to herself, Its done
brown enough by this timer What an odd reve-
lation, and what an unforeseen and unpleasant
surprise TO a small community. the very existence
Of which you had not suspected, until the sudden
dismay and scattering among its members pro-
duced by your turning the old stone over! Blades
OF grass fattehed down, c0l0rless, matted together
as il they had been bIeaehed and ironed: hid
eous crawling creatures some OF them eole0pte-
rous or 9 horny shelled '--turtle bugs, one wants
TO call them some Of them softer, but ounningly
spread out and compressed like Lepine watches
<nature never loses crack or creyice, mind you,
q joint in tavern hedstead but she always has one
of her atpattern live tmekeepers to slide into i j
black glossy crckets with their long hlaments stick
ing OUT ike the whips OF fourhorse stagecoaches; mo-
tioness, slugko creatures larvae perhaps more hor.
rihie IA their pulpy stiffness than in the Internal
wriggle Of maturity But no sooner is the stone
turned and the wholesome light OF day let upon this
compressed and blinded community OF creeping
things than all OF them enjoy the luxury Of legs
ana some oil them nave q goOd muHY---fuen Tounu
wildly. buttlng each other and everything In their
way, and end in general stampede for underground
retreats from the region poisoned by sunshine. Next
year you will lind the grass growing tall and green
where the stone lay the ground bird builds her nest
where the beetle had his hole; dandeon aud the but
tercap are growing there and the broad fans Of in
aect&nges open and shut over their golden discs as
the rhymthc waves Of bssfnl Consciousness pulsate
through their glorfed being.
The young fellow whom they call John saw fit to
say, il bis very familiar way--at which ! do not
choose to take offence, but which | think it some
times necessary TO repress--that | was coming 1t
rather strong on the butterflies.
No, replied there Is meaning in each Of those
images-the butterfly as well as the others The
stoue is ancient error. The grass Is human nature
borne down and bleached Of all its color by it. The
shapes that are found beneath are the crafty beings
that thrive Ia Darkness and the weaker organisms
kept helpless by it, He who turns the stone over is
whatsoever puts the staff Of truth to the old lying in
cubus no matter whether be do il with serious face
or laughing one. The next year stands for the
coming time. Then shall the nature which has been
banched and broken rise in its full stature aud native
haes in the sunshine. Then shall Gods minstrels
build their nests In the hearts OF new born human
itY Then shall beauty-dyinity taking outlines and
coior-light upon the souls OF men as the butterfly
image Of the beautifed spirit rising from the dust
scars from the shell that held poor grub, which
would never have found wings had not the stone been
lifted
You never need think that you can turn over any
cid falsehood without terrible squirming and scat
seriug Of the horrid little population that dwell
under it.