Morning journal and courier., 1880-07-03
The Overrated Ant.

From Mark Twain's ''A Tramp Abroad."l
 Now and then, while we rested, we watch ed the laborieus ant at his work. I found nothing new in him-certainly nothing to change my opinion of him. It seems to me that in the matter of intellect the ant must be strangely overrated bird. During many summers now have watched him, when I ought to have been in better business, and I ha*e not yet come across a living ant that seemed to have any more sense than dead one refer to the ordinary ant, of course; I have had no experience of those wonderful Swiss and African ones which vote, keep drilled armies, hold slaves and dispute about religion. These particular ants may be all that the naturalists paint them. but am per suaded that the average ant is a sham. ad- mire his industry, of course; he is the hard est working creature in the world-when anybody is looking-but his eather-headed- ness is the point l make against him. He goes out foraging, he makes a capture, and then what does he do? He doesn't know where home is. His home may be only three feet away no matter, he can't find it.
 He makes his capture, as I have said; it is generally something which can be of no earthly use to himself or anybody else; it is usually ten times bigger than it ought to be; he hunts out the awkwardest place to take hold of it; he lifts it bodily up in the air by main force, and starts-not towards home, but in the opposite direction nat calmly and y, wasteful of his strength; he fetches up against pebble, and instead of going round it, he climbs over it backwards, dragging his booty after him, tumbles down the other side, then jumps up in a passion, kicks the dust off his clothes, moistens his hands, grabs his property viciously, yanks it this way, then that shoves it ahead of him moment, turns tail and Jugs it after him another moment, gets madder and madder, then presently hoists it into the air and goes tearing away in an en- tirely new direction; comes to weed it never occurs to him to go around it. No; he must climb it, and he does climb it, dragging his worthless property to the top-which is as bright a thing to do as it would be for me to carry sack of four from Heidelburg to Paris by way of Strasburg steeple; when he gets up there he finds that that is not the place takes cursory glance at the scenery, and either climbs down again or tumbles down. and starts off once more-as usual, in a new 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 all over the ground for two yards around and climbed all the weeds and pebbles he came across Now he wipes the sweat from his brow, strokes his limbs, and then marches aimlessly off in as violent hurry as ever. H traverses good deal of zig-zag country, and by-and-by he stumbles his same booty again He does not remember to have ever
 
 is not the way home, grabs his bundle and starts. He goes through the same adven- lures he had before, finally stops to rest, and 8 friend comes along. Evidently the friend remarks that last years grasshopper leg lis 8 very noble acquisition, and inquires where he got it. Evidently the proprietor does not remember exactly where he did get it, but thinks he got it ''around here somewhere" Evidently the friend contracts to help him freight it home. Then, with judgment pe- culiarly antic (pun not intentionaD, they take hold of opposite ends of that grasshopper leg and begin to tug with all their might in opposite directions. Presently they take rest and confer together. They decide that something is wrong, they can't make est what Then they go at it again, just as be- fore Same result. Mutual recriminations follow Evidently each accuses the other of being an obstructionist. They warm up, and the dispute ends in fight. They lock them selves together and chew each others jaws for awhile; then they roll and tumble on the ground till one loses horn or leg and has to haul off for repairs. They make up and go to work again in the same old insane way, but the crippled ant is at 8 disadvantage tug as he may, the other one drags off the booty and him at the end of it. Instead of giving up, he hangs on and gets his shins bruised against every obstruction that comes in the way. By and by, when that grasshopper leg has been dragged all over the same old ground once more, it is finally dumped at about the spot where it originally lay The two per- spring ants inspect it thoughtfully, and de- eide that dried grasshopper legs are poor sort of property after alI and then each starts of in 8 differ Tt direction to see if he can't find an old nail or something else thatis heavy enough to afford entertainment, and at the same time valueless enough to make an ant want to own it.