Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1885-07-17

| lookout Tor them. Finally, one 6r ght
August afternoon. as we were working
in cut in large piece of woods. we
heard a roaring sound in I'll trees
coming nearer and nearer. IooN ito
| be heavy breeze. One of the men who
| had lived there many years and who
had often entertained me with his recol-
| lections, looked up and exclaimed,
''Here come the plaguy hspperS.
| curse them,-and all nv summers Ia
Dor in my garden VII be thrown away
In moment grasshopper 1t on
the ground beside M. and then anoth-
| sr and another. and in les than five
| minutes the ground was covered with
! them, and still they came, Lighting on
! our fences, on our hair. in our mo lth>,
| if we Were unwary enough to open
them; on the buShe>. anywhere an
everywhere. In an hour t was almost
| Impossible to see I BIT OF ground,
| and the bushes Were so loaded that
| they were bent to the ground. The
road between the rails was one living,
| jumping mass, aud the rails Were al
most out of SIGHT. so deep were they
! getting. Still they continued 10 COM,
and found myself wondering if they
would never stop. 1t was almost i'm
possible to work 1t YOU looked up
suddenly and did not shield your eyes
in some manner. they would come
with such force that. strik NJ Noi n
| the eye. they would almost III nd YOU.
| We could not step without trealing OF
them and crushing them, so th!c.> we e
they. The place where we were wor,,l-
| inc was at the SUNNI OF 4 slight II, 1e
IN hn Dad Tn tbi- ,rE.lan n
ger train soon came rushing along.
The grasshoppers did not all succeed
in getting off the rail and thousands
We're crushed, greasing the track and
the wheels of the engine. Before the
train had got half way up the grad it
began to slacken its speed an then
we saw the driving wheels of the en-
CINE slipping round and round. lht OF
taking hold of the raj. Sand was
thrown beneath the wheel. but the cf-
feet was only temporary. an the train
came to Il stop. Broom> were .aste.icd
| on the engine just in froat o. the wlee.S
so that they touched the rail. sw =, ping
the insects aside, and after much esort
| and long delay the train succeed in
starting again and worked its WAY
slowly along.
wherever the pests had settled on
anything green they began ut once to
eat, and such appettes as they pos
sessed! And such 4 taste As they were
. blessed with! Their first t.t-b was
| the common smart-weed and in an
hours me there was none of it left
| anywhere i'll sight. But they id not
object to anything unless it had sweet
taste that they would not touch. Tie
leaves began to disappear from the
trees and bushes as if by mage. On
our way home that evening we hal TO
pass Il large conlicld. the owner OF
| which an his family had spem. Their
whole time that season in cultivating.
Such IL scene of dcstruct on | had never
| dreamed of as was presented to my as
ton:shed gaze Where only twelve
hours before stood 4 forty-acre fell Of
corn so tall and thick that man 5
| head could not be seen anywhere. in it
and al Just com M out in taS ell moth
inc remained but the bare stalks look
ing like SO many reeds. The owner
and his family stood looking at the
ruin with the tea S stream NC down
their Sun-burned cheeks, the very pic
lures of despair. We stopped to SYM
path.ze with Ii IN. As we spoke to him
he looked at Us in Il heart broken man
ner and said
:" God only knows what VIII become
of us the coming winter! We depend
ed on our corn crop, and now it is all
gone, it i too late to raise another
crop, aud W. have not got Il cent TO
help ourselves with.
Turning away we made our way
l.. al, In, III,
own o. trtienS. | went around 10 the
back of the hoISe to see what was left
OF the neat beds that had been my
pride; only that morning | had been
boa>ting to my wife that we had the
finest garden in the village. Moth ng
rcma ned but the sweet potatoes and
the inner red Eat of the watHmeionS.
The outside had been cnt rely eatel
away, leaving about two wagon loads
OF the sweet red meat lying in the sun:
in ten days IN re ther would have been
ready to pick. The cabbageS were all
eaten clean from the stump; the bets.
carrots, beans and the rest we e all
gnawed close To the ground. | turned
away heart sick and sat down BY thu
front doo... In front OF the house WAS
h ga pckes fence, aad as the sun
went down | Noticed the gras>hopperS
gathering on the fence like ch ckcns
going to rooSt; before dark YOU could
not see between the picketS. The
fence 10 )kcd ike one living mass of
graSshoppc"S: the s,de OF the house
was also thickly covered. The rooms
in the hou It were full of them; they
were heaped on tn chairs. the
curtains. the table, til bel. fhev
leapet into the fool being prepared
for our supper. 1t was impossible to
keep them out as the weather was very
warm and the doors and W ndows were
all open. For the next few days We
could not place dish of anything on
the table without having one or more
tumble in it before we could eat the
contents. After going to be we could
not move without disturbing them, and
the. would crawl over ones face caus-
inc very unpleasant sensation. They
would eat through piece of cloth or
musl II and soon destroy curtains or
clothing if not closely watched. The
next morning went to start the fire
which had fixed all ready to chit the
night before. Ihad left one of the ! ds
of the stove, and as l applied the
W bhC paper MAUI Il Sltit
commot.oa inside | looked in to as
certa;n the cause and found the stove
full of them. and soon they were roast
ing in fine style.
I'm three or four days there was
nothing green to be seen. The coun-
try looked as barren and forsakca a
desert. The grass was all eaten away.
the weeds also. and the leaves were
stripped from the tree; and bushes.
Looking toward the sun you could see
them flying overhead like flakes of
snow in countless thousands. After
they hal eaten up everything they de-
parted. and God only knows the suf1;
ering their visit caused the poor people
of Kansas during the following wn-
ter. - iG3rathG fknR.J Cor. Y. T.
Tribune.