The Iola register., 1882-01-20
Tiresome Insects.

closely rlvaled by the coral insect. Ever
since the time of King Solomon, and
probably from a still earlier period,
solemn and wearisome mOralists have
urged their fellow-beings to go to the ant,
and learn industry, business habits. an
cient and modern languages, and the
use of the globes from that wrctched
little insect. By implication we have all
been assured that we are far inferior by
nature than the ant, and that we can
never become valuable citizens unless we
initiate ants After a few thousand
wears this sort of thing has become pain
fully tiresome. Undoubtedly the ant has
its virtues, but after all it is an immense
ly overrated insect. 1t works industri-
ously, but it also works unnecessarily
and in circumstances which prove that
it lacks goot. judgment. 1t keeps cows,
or insects to that effect, and supplies it
self with pure currant-bush country
milk, but unless it is every mans duty
to keep his own COW, of what value is
the example of the ant in this respect?
Sir John Lubbock assures us that the
ants have religion, and that they wor-
ship black beetle. Surely, no worse
example could be set before Christian
people than is afforded by the gross pag-
anism of the ants. So weary has the
public become of being unceremOniously
sent 10 the ant that there is now a grow
ing disposition to refuse to have anything
to do with ants. and to regard them as
: little better than crawling nuisances.
The coral insect has also been upheld
as model of industry, and boys who
have shown tendency to shirk their
studies have been required to take no
e ice that the coral insect can build an en-
tire island by working at it for few
million years, and that this thrilling fact
ought to make boys willing to study a
particularly hard lesson for at least 3, 900
or 1000 years before they become dis
.couraged and inform the teachers that
the lesson is too hard. The coral insect
has also been lugged into literature and
sermons to an extent that is simply mad
dening, and that creates thirst for
blood in the man who reads for the ten
thousandth time of the infnitesimal ma
son of the Pacific reefs. Moreover, the
coral insect has lent his assistance to
continually appealed to by geologists
who wish to prove that it must have
taken 7.O00,O years for the coral in
, sects of Florida to build reef over the
remains of an India rubber boot or other
undoubted relic of primeval man. On
the whole, the coral insect, if possibly
less tiresOme than the ant, is more in
furious to the peace of mind and happi-
ness of mankind.
Efforts have been made from time to
time by designing mOralists to elevate
the bee to level with the coral insect
and the ant. DR.. Watts admirably asks
chow doth the little busy bee," and ex-
poets his readers to answer in terms of
high commentator of that insect; while
naturalists are never tired of telling us
that the hexagonal cell of the bee is a
marvel of mechanical skill. They never
seem TO notice that the bee is utterly in
capable of inventing even the simplest
hive. and has to depend upon man both
for hives and for the introduction of
honey into the market. As for DIR. Watts,
if bee had only stung him on his ven-
cradle nose he would have had an en-
tirely different opinion of what is proba-
bly, one of the most vicious, violent and
Objectionable insects every patronized
by mistaken and tedious mOralists.
Whatever obligations we may owe to
Charles Darwin as an ingenious and en-
tertaining naturalist, he has forfeited
them all by his late attempt to provide
us with a new pattern of perfection in
the shape of the earth-worm. He has
written whole volume in praise of that
hitherto despised animal. According to
n n Al ., g.,
industrious and intelligent than the ant,
the coral insect and the bee; and hence
forth moralists will constantly be send
ing us to the ca....,-worm. It appears
that the earth-worm, who bores his way
through the ground by swallowing the
earth in his path, was the original in
ventor of the system of propelling ves-
sells by pumping in water at the bow
and pumping it out again at the stern.
The amount of work done by the worms
in excavating the earth is enormous, but
: their favorite occupation is burying
ruined cities. 1t has always been a mys-
: terry how the remains of Roman
and Grecian cities have been buried SEEM
ingly without attracting the attention of
man, Mr.. Darwin shows that the earth
WI Ids UCCu OHC oCAUOu
When the worms find large stone, a
fallen column, or an abandoned iroa pot
lying in field. they proceed to under
mine it by digging away the earth under
meath it, while at the same time they
bring immense quantities of earth to the
surface and deposit it near the edge of the
object to be buried. As consequence,
the object sinks slowly into the ground.
and is covered by the earth brought to
the surface by the worms, so that after
time it totally disappears. This is the
way in which the ruins of antiquity have
been buried, and although the process of
burying is such slow one that we do not
Z notice It. Our houses are at this moment
/, being buried by the earth worms.
It can be easily foreseen that the earth
worm, combining, as he does. the pesti-
lent industry of the ant with the fond
ness for burying things and forming new
strata characteristic of the coral insect,
will become more tiresome than either of
the latter, and that Mr.. Darwin, as his
- xn,;n oo ~, tho 1oSt;pc, 1;cor,,ro