The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1888-08-11
The Plague Of LOcusts.

All persons VINO are now IN tHe WOODS
of the Northwest can appreciate the
situation in Egypt when the locusts
made raid upon the premises of sub
jects and king. Our cool climate cannot
compete with the Nile region as to the
quantity of these pests, but the supply
here Is such as to awaken deep pity for
any Pharaoh who had around him q
more innumerable host. The woods
roar from sun to sun with din much
like that made by the many fy-wheels
and tanning wheels of score of facto-
ries.
The superstitious find in the "W" on
the wing of these insects the token of a
coming war, but it would be better to
suppose the letter to stand for the word
rOrb, for toll is their mission, while
there is no pugnacity in their nature.
The small boy has few in his pocket
or in his hand, that he may carry near
him a sample of the general racket
One boy twenty years of age and six
feet three in height, had yesterday a
score Of musical peapods. He had re-
moved the marrowfats from their
chambers and had put a locust in each
pod. A rubber band completed the
imprisonment. Thus this large and
scientific infant was carrying about a
band of singers In manner creditable
to his inventive genius. Thus confined
the locust Will not sing his best song,
but he viii keep up a kind of under
tone practice which suits the little par
Tors and porches of man. When this
Il lo
air he can be heard distinctly about a
hundred yards. The noise in the woods
is made by the combined efforts of a
million voices acting in harmony. Thus
do they teach what a wonderful result
is reached in the human world when
many hands perform each some small
part of a great task.
These pests of Egyptian fame utter a
moral lesson in that they all sing as
they work. Whether the individual
which is blowing a furrow in the bark
is the one which does the singing is not
known, but one thing is certain, the
work proceeds accompanied by song, as
/ though labor were one of the most
precious favors granted by Heaven
upon life. IL the stroller In these
woods will look steadily up into the
tops of the oaks he will see myriads of
these working rms fitting here and
there III a hurry which the honey-bes
cannot surpa s.
The present .0cust is not that species
which is seen al heard in small num-
bers ever SUNNI ,r-time. Our old an
nual friena a a most twice as large al.
those now here, his habits are more in
dolent, his noise a long, drawn-out
crescendo. The ordinary loafer of every
August occupies about an acre of wood
or field and at intervals he begins a
kind of horse-fiddle tune which swells
IN volume for whole minute. 1t sud
denly drops, the singer moves about
SIX inches and after an intermission of
twenty minutes he repeats the rasping
performance, unless he observes a small
boy coming with a club. In such a
crisis the second song is put off until
the boy goes to supper. The locust
now before the public has a song of
musical quality and about twelve hours
IN length. The concert begins at a.
m. and ceases at about p. m.
Wise men do not give satisfactory
teachings as to where these locusts
have been for ten or fifteen or seven
teen years. 1t is in evidence that in
each square foot in the eptire woods
there are at least four holes. out of
which four locusts emerged three weeks
ago. They all came up at once. They
We're then without wings. Each one
took firm hold of some twig or bark,
and then, by some effort, tore open the
back of It's coat and emerged differ
ent animal, with wings, with musical
instruments, and with q kind of Bes-
semer steel chisel for cutting into the
timber. In two hours after this debut
was made the creature was at its
work and It's song. Some stu
dents OF nature suppose the eggs
to remain In the trees during
the long period; others that the egg
matches in a few months, and that the
grub falls to the ground and waits in
the earth for the time for transforms
ton. We all know this. that Nature
does not permit any absolutely dormant
state. If an egg or grub were dor
mant, that state would as we'll last
twenty years as five. It could not
possess any seventeen-year limit Nat
ure knows nothing but definite opera
ton, and this compels US to assume
that the locust lays an egg which can
not become a singing locust in less
than seventeen years. The common
grub-worm which destroys meadows
matches in three years. 1t is probable
that there are forms of life which may.
hike the century plant, ask for the
arena of hundred yers x which to
pass from the egg to external exist
ence,- mid Suing.