The New Orleans crescent., 1868-09-06
WORMs.
BY PESRYN PENIFEATHER.
For the Sunday Crescent. !

For the Sunday Crescent
l don't intend TO shock the most fastidious
Even the young lady who can't bait her owr
hook, but can pull the very eyes out of an uufor
tunate fish that happens to swallow it, may read
these interesting items without fear.
Worms are from three sxty.fourths of AN inch
or les in length up to as high as you would like to
go, unless you have uncommonly steady nerves.
When they get very large they are called snakes,
or serpents-or, to be pre- eminently elegant. rep-
tiles. But calling a snake q reptile don't make
him crawl any higher from the ground, any more
than calling man carpet-bagger makes him
less Yankee.
There have been great many puns perpe.
trated on worms. which 1 think is treating them
badly. Indeed the word has been played on so
often that most people have gotten tired of play.
ng-in fact, puns OF ell sorts Just at present are
very violently epidemic, and like all epidemics "a
more or less unpleasant to take. Worms have
been mentioned as diet 1.-THE French eat snails.
but they are foreigners). Worms have been
spoken Of in connection with stills, as if the moor
dumb creatures could be other wise than still Yoo
might even say something about the worm of A
scIew-not the Texas screw-worm mind-but ali
,nese ,nlngs are unprohtable: They are too much
IKE what Paul mentioned TO Festus under the head
of learning, and if they should nfest Us thew might
make us mad too, so | won't
NO! What we want of worms is to regard
them In their highest sense; to view them as the
proofs OF an infinite Providence, and to look AZ
them-in a word, TO consider them-apd indeed
10 search through their organization 10 find out
wei, you all know what want to say: 50 what's
The use OF going on in this incoEerent mauuer.
worms nave existed since the first times Of
which We have accurate historical record ana
possibly previously They are very abundant
Just now, having lately webbed up with pros
peet oi rapid increase soon, which, cottonly
speaking, Is far from gratifying. The planters
who want advances keep a stiff upper lin and
can " three-quarter crop certain, which un
doUbtedly shows cOnhdence-in their own state.
ments.
1t has been asserted by pious men that we are
ali worms OF the earth-i. e., earth worms Much
a. cohnde ID the statements usually proceeding
from such respectable sources musk ak ner
naissian ss s~-s. On tfrfs pUrnr-f-Ir~-.
noticed that earth worms are red-which I am
NOT except Wnen Mslyina says she loves me-
maBlng me blush to the very roots Of nv collar
Earth worms also live in little holes in the rronod
whence they come In damp weather and sprawi
about In hel2lessy idiotic way, which. 10 saw
lne iesst, Is not calculated TO encourage ideas Of
relationship. Earth worms, likewise have two
heads and two tails, and you can't tell tiother
from whlch-which amt, so conclude. gen.
orally l am not an earth worm; or if am. mar
over. '-"
+" 1t may reasonably be doubted. y remarks m,
learned friend DR.. Ambiguous, whether worms
as class are capable of evokng from their O wa
Clements very high state of civilization On
me other hand / myself Witnessed something
winch would seem TO contravene this entirely I
passec by large and fourishing colony of worms
and the whole time of my stay in their vicinity
remarked something peculiarly high whether il
vas civilization or not don't know, bat IL smelt
very much ke-horse.
Worms are wicked creatures sometimes O,a
OF them tempted Eve. 1t was thus He en,ered |
an apple. The apple feeling decay at its y,ttls |
exer'ed every energy 70 bring its life to ripeness
before the end should come. II attained the |
besu,y Of maturity sooner than its fellows ana /
Eve, with the true womanly liking for a fair ont.
side, piucked and partook thereof. For conss.
quence see the Mechanics Institute.
Worms have their uses. though. IA already in.
lnaied the5 are good for fishing and in this con.
lection, as the lrishmsn said, especially vhen
hey squirm. they are hard to bait. Worms have
ilso gwen name 10 very useful article of diet-
y m ice, and they would have stood godfather 10
mother but u was too large so as there was
PREJUDICE against calling il snakes, they compro-
nised snd called it maccaroni, which name IL
'ears TO the present day.
perhaps owe an apology for the caption Of
nis srucle. but the fact Is that wanted 10 write
bout worms, and thought the safest plan would
e to say 80. The polite term, I believe. il cater
hlars. Aalvins calls them so, but her refinement