Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1883-12-23
FROM WASHINGTON.
The Texas Ant and Horned Frog-Con-
slider Their Way and be Wise.
Queer stories With Political DigreS.
sions and Application.
i;ow Philosophy and Observation
Ruled 10 the Rude Rutabaga
Genial Presence Which Warns Both
Man and Reptile.
Rambling Remarks for Natmalists
and the Smith sonlan Institute.

special correspondence or the Gazette.
Washington, December lS.-A fami-
liz of ants that occupied Capitol I'M IN
Austin used to interest me, and since
.thelg dwelling place has been rudely 4
invaded by builders Of the new capitol,
ann curious to know what fortune
In, betided these original inhabitants
of the prettiest little city in America.
remember that in single night {
these subterranean and primeyal oe-
cupants of the hills on which Austin I
is built, stripped thirty peach, trees /
af every leaf they bore. /
/ remember that they TOOK |
charge of Longs livery stable and de- |
ported a wagon-load OF oats, generous
iy leaving the famed faneier the husks !
and straw. These ants never did
tasks piecemeal. Theirs was credit
mobiiier association which engulled
everything by Systematic associated
effort. They would invade farm
north Of Austin, n mile or two away,
desolating IL In single night, and
then send countless legions down to
the lower and southern portions of the
city TO ravage the dwelling places
the jocals-of rusty Mexicans, who
contemplate their shadows without
cleansing their bodies, IN the bright
waters Of the brawling Colorado. i
used to think that this nation
of ants had their capitol
beneath Capitol Hill, and
have wondered whether the build
ers of the great state-hotse, while dig
cling the chasm for its foundation
stones. would not discover the deposit
tory in which Longs oats and Capt.
Pitts peach trees We're inurned by these
primeval snbterranean inhabitants
vi Austin. There Is a mammoth cave
somewhere beneath that hill. If not
constructed by nature. these innumer-
able armies of ants excayated II. Every
ant hole on the hills and In the streets
and about the state-house led to this
great Nespasian's amphitheuter, in
which winged and bald-headed and
red and brown and little and great
ants gathered exhaustless stores ofricll-
es. One Theo. Noel, the great origi.
nal granger from whom
Rutabaga johnson and his
illustrious coadjutors imbibed diyines'
inspirations in statecraft, once at
tempted to annihilate the ants Of Aus
tin. Noel caused to be constructed ,
mighty stomach-pump with which !
was proposed TO force carburetted ny
drogen down into the main shaft o
the ant cave. We applied the nozzl
oi the engine 10 great orinee III w
earth just north of the capitol. III
injected into 1t enough deadly yapor Z
siiil the largest gssometer. His ma
chine having exhausted the supply o
poisonous air, he awaited the lesplt
Countless millions Of ants, from innu
merable holes, came TO the snrfae.
Hills and valleys We're covered wit
them, aud from each hole th
gas escaped, and then the al
went in aud soon the ants followed
and though innumerable plsmirs
We're destroyed, there was no percept
Bile ditninution OF their number, All
Noel and his assistants abandoned III
task Of expelling ants from Austin.
THE ANTS GREAT ENEMY.
Next after old RuuAhaga's hoof
: hprned frogs were the the most su
esseih agencies ever employed Ia Al
~ externainAtinR ants. The
4qeer little creatures would 70, on