The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1879-06-12
The PaleOzOic COckrOach.
New York Times

Inc faleOZOlC COckFOacus
New York Times.
To the thoughtful patriot there is
something reassuring in the calmness
with which, in the midst Revolutionary
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 Devonisn and the Silurian periods.
In some one, of al, of these fourished
the paleozoic cockroach. 1t is hardly
necessary to say that when this par
ticular brand of reach fourished, Susan
B. Anthony was yet young, Gen. John
A. Dix was playing marbles, and SamI.
J. Tilden had scarcely thought of being
candidate for Office. 1t is not certain
whether the paleozoic cockroach was
most active in the Csrboniferous, the
Devonisn, or the old Silurian period.
Nor is it distinctly said that he lived in
all of these remarkable erss of the geolo>
gical history of the globe. 1t is enough
for us to know that, anterior to the in
vention of the Darwinisn theory of the
survival of the fittest, and before Mr.. 0
B. rockingham and his friends ha
abolished God, the paleozoic cCckroach
lived and enjoyed himself. His place in
the economy of nature may not now be
accurately determined, but, so 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 q 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 a companion of the festive
pterodactyl and the now unhappily
extinct plesiosaurus Was he coevsl-
with the trilobite, and familiar with
the megatherum and the oviparous
notornis? Did the palezoic cockroach
elude the tread of the hesyy-footed
paleotherium or did he gaze from his
secure retreat upon the wild antics of
the glyptedon and the amstory en-
braces of the cephslaspsa5 Had the
palezoic cockroach q local habitation
and a nameH What were his hopes
his ambitions his aims his mission I?
and what his esthetic and peculiar
view of life, as life existed in the Car
boniferous or Silurian period? These
are momentous questions. And, whether
the democratic majority in congress
shall OF shall not prove revolutionary,
it concerns us deeply to know just what
were the motives, the career and the
environment of the paleEoic cockroach-
For time, then, hushed be the elamor
of the stock market, and let the shrill
opportunities of Dennis Kearney, and
the stridulous elOquence of Daniel
Webster Voorhees,, otherwise known as
the Tall Sycamore of the Wabash, be
still. The history of the palezoic cocks
roach engages puolic attention.
It seems to be conceded by the MAJ
tional Academy of Sciences that there
is, or was, paleozoic cockrosch. This
humble insect existed before the discov-
cry of America, even before the birth of
Thurlow Weed and the date of the Nor
man conquest. Indeed, man himself
did not make his appearance upon the
earth until the last paleOzoic eockrosch
had wrapped the drapery of his couch
about him." OF course, in this state
ment we make no account Whatever of
Bret Harte's pliocene man, whose
"-crust was busted,
falling down a shaft
Tn Golauarez EountyD