The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1880-06-09
THE ANT.
An Insect That Has Been Strangely Over
rated.

An Insect That Has Been Strangely Over
rated.
From "a Tramp" by Mark Twain
Now and then, while we rested, we
watched the laborious ant ut his work. l
found nothing new in him-certainly moth
ing to change my opinion of him. IL seems
to me that IN the matter of intellect the ant
must be a strangely Overrated bird. During
many summers now | have watched him,
when ought to have been in &c tier business
and have not yet come across a living ant
that seemed TO have any more sense than
dead one | refer TO the ordinary ant, OF
course. have had no experience OF those
wonderful Swiss and African ones which
vote, keep drilled armies, hold slaves and
dispute about religion. Those particular
ants may be all that the naturalist paints
them, but l am persuaded that the average
ant is a sham. / admit his industry, of
course; he Is the hardest working creature in
the worid-when anybody is looking-but
his leather-heededness is the point I make
against him. He goes out foraging he
makes q capture, and then what does he do?
Go home? No; he goes anywhere but home.
He doesn't know where home is. His home
may be only three feet away; no matter, he
can't find il.
He makes his capture, as have said il is
generally something which can be OF no sort
of uss to himself or anybody else; 1t il
be; be hunts out the awkwardest place to
take hold of il, and starts-Dot toward home,
but in the opposite direction; not calmly
and wisely, but with a frantic haste
which is wasteiul of his strength he
fetches up against a pebble, and instead
of going around 1t he climbs over 1T back
wards dragging his body after him, tumbles
down the other side, jumps in a passion,
kicks the dust off his clothes moistens his
hands, grabs his property Yiciously, yanks
this way, then that, snoves Ii ahead of him,
turns tail and Tugs it after him another mo-
ment. gets madden, then presently hoists it
in the air and goes tearing away in an
entirely new direction; comes to q weed
it never occurs to hum to 60 around it.
No; he must climb it, dragging his
worthless property to the top-which Is as
bright thing to do asst would be for me TO
carry sack of -four from Heidelberg to
Paris by way of Strasburg steeple; when he
gets up there he finds that that Is not the
place; takes a cursory glance at the scenery
and either climbs down again or tumbles
down, and starts of once moIe-as usual, in
an opposite direction.
At the end of half an hour he fetches up
within six inches of the place he started
from, and lays his burden down. Meantime
he has been over all the ground for two yards
around and climbed all the weeds and peb-
bles be came across. Now he wipes the
sweat from his brow, strokes his limbs and
then marches aimlessly off, in as violent a
hurry as ever. He traverses good deal
of zigzag country, and by-snd by stumbles
on his same booty again. He does not Ie
member TO have ever seen 1t before; he
looks aronnd to see which is not the way
home, grabs his bundle and starts. He goes
through the same adventures he had before,
finally stops to rest, and friend comes
along, Evidently the friend remarks that
last years grasshopper-leg Is very noble &C
quiEiuon, and inquiries where he got il.
Evidently the proprietor does not remember
exactly where he did get IL, but thinks be
got il around somewhere" Evident
ly the friend contracts to help
him 70 freight 1t home. Then
with judgment peculiarly antic (pun not
intentional), they take hold OF opposite ends
of that grasshopper leg, and begin TO tug
with all their might in opposite directions.
Presently they take q rest, and confer to-
gether. They decide that something Is
wrong, they can't make out what. Then
they go ar it egain, just as before. Same
result. Mutual recriminations follow.
Evidently each accuses the other OF being
an obs,rucfionist. They warm mp, and
the dispute ends in fight. They lock them
selves together and chew each others jaws
for a while; then they roll and tumble on
the ground till one loses . horn or a Leg and
has TO haul of for repairs. They make up
and 90 to work again In the same old insane
way, b-+ ths Crippled ant " AT diaadveDt-
eye; tug as ne may, the otasr gao Axass III