The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1879-06-28
The Paleozoic Cockroach.
New York Times.

schemes and subversive political meas.
ures, the members of the National
Academy of Science sat down in Wash.
ington to discuss the paleozoic cockroach.
As is well known to our readers, the
paleczoic era included the Carboniferous,
the Devonian and the Silurian periods.
In some one, of all, of these fourished
the paleozoic cockroach. 1t is hardly
necessary to say that when this par
ticular brand of roach fouriahed, Susan
B. Anthony was yet young, Gen. John
A. Dix was playing marbles, and Saml.
j. Tilden had scarcely thought of being
candidate for Office. It is not certain
whether the paleozoic cockroach was
most active in the Carboniferous, the
Devonisn, or the old Silurian period.
Nor is it distinctly said that he lived in
all of these remarkable eras of the geolo>
gical history of the globe. 1t is enough
for us to know that, anterior to the in
vention of the Darwinian theory of the
survival of the fittest, and before Mr.. o
B. rockingham and his friends had
abolished God, the paleozoic ccckroach
lived and enjoyed himself. His place in
the economy of nature may not now be
accurately determined, but, 80 long as
the savants of the National Academy of
Science are in existence, no pains shall
be spared to discover when he lived and
why he died.
1t is not necessary to remind the in
telligent reader that the palezoic cock
roach has a historic character. In
fact, his history may be said to be
ancient history. Before the Assyrian
empire was founded, and before was
born the mythical wolf which sucked
the twin builders of Rome, the palezoic
cockroach was. There is something SUBJ
lime in the thought. And when the
neat housewife who reads these lines
shall rush to crush with her deadly slip
per the so-called croton>bug (blatta
germanica), let her pause and consider
that the ancestry of this unobtrusive
insect antedstes by several cons that of
the more or less obscure ancestry of
the aristocracy of New York. In
which of the three geological periods
| did the palezoic cockroach flourish
Was he q companion of the festive
pterodactyl and the now unhappily
extinct plesiosaurus Was he coeval.
with the trilobite, and familiar with
the megatherum and the oviparous
notornis? Did the palezoic cockroach
elude the tread of the heavy-footed
paleotherium. or did he gsze from hi'
secure retreat upon the wild antics Of
the glyptodon and the amatory en-
braces of the cephalasr@a Had the
palezoic cockroach q local habitation
and q namef What were his hopes
his ambitions2 his aims his mission
and what his ssthetic and peculiar
view of life, as life existed in the Gar
boniferous or Silurian reriod3 These
are momentous questions. And, whether
the democratic majority in congress
shall or shall not prove revolutionary
| it concerns us deeply to know just what
were the motives, the career and the
environment of the palezoic cockrosch
| For time, then, hushed be the clamor
| of the stock market, and let the shril
opportunities of Dennis Kearney, and
the stridulous eloquenee of DAME
Webster voorhees,, otherwise known a
the Tall Sycamore of the Wabash, b
still. The history of the Palezoic cock
roach engages puohc attention.
| It seems to be conceded by the Ma
tional Academy of Sciences that Their
Is, or was, 3 paleozoic cockrosch. Thi'
humble insect existed before the discoy
cry of America, even before the birth o
Thurlow Weed and the date of the Nor
man conquest. Indeed, man himaei
did not make his appearance upon tn
earth until the last psleozoic cockrosel
had wrapped the drspery of his coucl
about him. OF course, In this state
ment we make no account Whatever o
Bret Harte's pliocene man, whose
A "---erust was busted,
falling down shaft
n In Cslaveras County"
II For, although that man was addresses
by the poet as q contemporary with th
extinct and scientifically named menag
], erie of the ultrs-ancient world it is vel
Known that his name was Bowers, an