Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1885-07-10
Cra..hopPers for Food.-why No,f

Prom the New York Trbune.l
Since the use Of lOcusts a. food has boen
mooted, many expressions OF disgust at such
an idea have been uttered. But apart from
unreasonable prejudice there is really nothing
TO Justify Tepugnauce in the case. The To-
Gust is n phenomenally clean feeder. II is
built up entirely on sweet and wholesome
vegetable juices Il must be infinitely purer
as an article of diet than many things which
most people eat hAbituAlly. There Is no foul
or feeder than the hog, for example, and the
domestic fowl is scarcely more particular.
Crabs and lobsters and shrimps fatten upon
nameless denominations, and, moreover, all
these crustaceans ars exceedingly ugly in ap-
pearance. A dish OF softshell crabs looks
very much like dish Of large spiders. There
il no essential difference between ees and
snakes. And Charles Lamb thought that the
man who first swallowed an oyster WAS bet
ter entitled to Horace's laudatory yerses-iH
rObur et GS tripIeS, etc.-than he who first
tempted fate by going to sea The truth is
We are ali governed largely by habit and &C
quired taste in eating and drinking.
The Australian native extracts from the
bark OF tree a huge fat white maggot, which
he devours with exceeding gustO. The Es-
quimAus mouth waters at the Appetizing odor
Of decomposed seal meat and whale blubber
The Fiji Islander until quite reosntly revellsd
in the human form divine, nicely baked in an
oven, with the face neatly blAeked and all
the cracking well Drowned Out OF decent
respect for the prejudices OF his contempt.
raries he called his favorite dish ''long pig"
In South America they eat great lizards, and
find them toothsome and delicate. In Africa
baked monkeys il accounted good, though
somewhat too like a Christian child" for
the unemAncipAted Western taste. In Egypt
dervishes are fonnd who make a practice Of
digestinR live scorpions and venomOus snakes.
Rats and mice aud such small deer have CON-
monty been used a. food, from the markets
Of China TO those OF Paris during the siege
The people who live on the shores OF the In
dian Ocean make q food of the gigantic eeph.
alopOds, one Of which Victor Hugo immorta-
lized under the name OF the piSuBTe. In Bor.
neo, crabs which stand two feet high and look
perfectly horrible are eagerly devoured Ia
short, there ia scarcely any living organism
which has not some time and in some parts Of
the world been used a. food by men, and
when ,he latter decline TO eat the creature 8
themselves they very often do II at one re-
move by feeding upon animals that eat the
rejected organisms.
To young Irish girl terrapin stew might
easily appear thing Of unutterable horror
and detestation. just so in Central Africa
the custom OF nudity has reversed things un-
III the women regard the puulng on OF cloth
ing as immodest, instead Of the taking it of.
II will probably not be an easy matter TO in
troduce the locusts IA a regular article OF diet
in this country but the few who have con-
quered prejudice, like DIR. Hartman, of West
chester, Penn, may in time see the fruit of
their teaching in the regular importation and
marketing Of the insects. Already the Cali
fornia Indians prepare them for food and
preserve them AZ winter provision, and those
who have tasted them in that condition say
that they are pAlatable and nutritious