The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1874-08-06
With Regard to the GrasshoPPer.
from New York Tribune, July %.

Comes this way now on lifted wing,
with fiery lightnings in his eye and the
cereal crops of six counties OF Minneso-
ia in his craunching teeth, the wild. un-
bridled grasshopper Of the West. A
jerky bird is the grasshopper. He folds
himself up like the jack-knife, releases
himself like an arrow from a Bonded
bow, propels himself over large spaces
and subsists on the country he covers.
He assimilates the people to himself.
When he alights upon the field the far
mer looks for his crop, and behold, like
the grasshopper which has passed, he
has antennR. For sociability and gre
gariousness there are few wild fowl like
the grasshopper. He moves in battal-
ions at company front, and wherever
there's one there are million. Stand
ing on the ground, his knees overlook
him like step-ladder, and his tout en-
semble is that of an overloaded wheel
barrow. He has the unbounded stom-
ach of a weekly story paper for
cereals, and when he has cleared
up the standing crops of a
county OF State, he skips to the next,
picking his teeth as he goes, and there
gathering himself in mass convention,
he follows the fashion Of the time and
points with pride'' to the record of
the past. The youth of our country
call him indifferently the grass-hopper
and the hopper-grass, and say ''Shoo'
at him as he goes by. The hardy
Utah pioneer gently untangles the legs
of him from his hair and whiskers, and
covers him with number Is boot; the
guest at Townsend's Hotel in Salt Lake
City hears him through all the silent
watches of the night rush into the win
dow as one who has been sent for from
afar, and drop with thud into the
washbowl; and the Digger Indian
gathers him in trenches and barbecues
him for the MONDAY meal.
Against the grasshoppers all carnal
weapons are powerless. Gov. Davis OF
Minnesota knew this. So when he
heard that in six counties of that fertile
State the grasshoppers had convened,
he telegraphcd the War Department for
$4,000 worth of rations in lieu of the
$4,000 worth of arms due the State.
Whether the arms had been called for
on account of the grasshoppers we are
not told, but Gov. Davis was wise in
making up his mind that with the pres
ent style of musket issued by the De-
partment it would be idle to encounter
the grasshopper in his wrath. With
great discretion he gave up the fight
before it began, and called for rations-
a supply train to follow in the rear of
the invader and ameliorate the condi-
ton of his victims. Davis did what has
come to be the prevailing habit Of the
politician-called on the General Gov
eminent for help at once. Not getting
assistance from that quarter, he resort
ed to the County Treasurers but those
officials had more fear of the law than
of the grasshopper, and at last accounts
Davis was in quandary what to do.
Being so far off we are hardly compe.
tent to advise, but it seems to US that,
this being a season of political conven-
tions, it would do no harm to pass a
series of resolutions to placate the grass
hopper. They could do no possible
harm, and might soften the heart of the
grasshopper. 1t would not be bad
plan either. to try the effect upon the
grasshopper of reading the Address of
the Republican Congressional Commit
tee In front Of him. If that would not
drive him back nothing would.