St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1893-04-29
CHRISTOPHER PLAGUE.
A SOLID WALL OF INSECTS SIX
INCHES THICK,
AN Old kansan's Account of a Sudden
invasion of Myriads of Grasshoppets
and the Ruin They Wrought.

y
and the Ruin They Wrought.
An old resident of Kansas has bee
givinga NewYork Tribune correspondent
graphic account of a remarkable visi
tation of grasshoppers which he wit
messed once upon time in that State
He was working upon a railroad as
construction hand, at the time. w
quote from his narrative as follows:
Il rented house with a good sizet
garden attached, and devoted nv SPAR
moments to its cultivation, taking grea
pleasure in watching the rapid growth o
the vegetables, including sweet potatoc
and watermelons, and fondly
the time when they should reach stat,
of usefulness. Meantime we heart
rumors about the approach of immense
sWarms of grasshoppers, and my fellow.
worllmcn would regale me with storie:
OF the devastation wrought by then
which seemed so incredible that I merel,
regarded them as attempts to delude a
'tcndcrfoot,' as they called me- As the
weeks passed. by and the threatened in
Vaslon did not occnr, q feeling of Sc.
curlty took possession of all, and We
came to the conclusion that the impend,
ing scourge had passed in some other di-
rectlon. My garden was rapidly nearing
that state of maturity when | could have
my own vegeta les and melons in abund-
ance. One morning told my wife that
IN another week we would have our own
sweet potatoes and bects and cabbages,
while the melons would not be far be-
hind.
We were engaged that day in pre-
pairing to move the tracks further back
from the enroaching river. The heat
was intense, no rain having fallen in
several weeks, and the parched and baked
earth reflected the rays Of the burning
sun until the air seemed to come from an
oven. About o'clock in the afternoon,
while we were working in half hearted,
listless way, about ready to drop from the
enervating effects of the heat, we sudden
ly heard rustling among the branches of
the trees on the bluff near us.
g Thank God ? cried one of the men
dropping his shovel, there comes
breeze at last
1--WE all Strengthened up to catch the
first faint breath of the welcome stir of
the superheated atmosphere, and lifted
our hats to let it play upon our throb-
bing temples. All at once the foreman
cried out in q tone of CONSERVATION,
Hoppers, by = The long threatened
visitation had come sure enough, and
what we had faucied to be the gentle
rustling of the longed-for breeze was
the sound Of the onward rush of the
countless multitude of grasshoppers
through the foliage of the forest nearby.
First one settled upon the ground at our
feet, then another and another, and in an
incredibly short time the ground was
swarming with and literally buried from
sight by the ever-increasing army. Talk
about a blizzard / have never seen a
blizzard that obliterated everything as
quickly as that grasshopper blizzard did.
They swarmed all over us--in our faces,
down our necks, and We had to keep our
mouths closed to keep them from getting
down our Threats. We could not step
without crushing mass of them under
our feet. To ME who had never seen
them before the sight was appalling
Still they continued to come, the air be-
ing darkened by the oncoming hosts.
And as soon as they touched the ground
they went to eating. What appetites
those yarmints had Soon the weeds |
and grass and leaves on the trees and |
to,,diSappcar as if by magic. |
Almost everything was to their taste !
unlesszit was sweet. They would not
touch sorghum or sweet potatoes or any
thing like that. Pretty soon passenger
train came tearing along q down-grade |
some distance below. but near lis the |
grade began a sharp ascent, and as the
rain drew near the driving wheels of the |
engine flew around at a tremendous rate |
md the train slackened its speed while |
he engineer frantically sanded the rails,
rying to make them hold. Blu; it was
If NO use. The grasshoppers covered the
'ails SO densely that myriads of them had
oeen crushed under the wheels, greasing
hem so thoroughly that the train was
stalled. The train hands got a couple
If brooms, and, shortening the handles,
astened one on each side of the pilot of
he engine SO that they just swept the
ails. The mass of crushed hoppers was
cleaned from the driving wheels, the
ails were well sauded, and after
everal efforts the train at last started,
he brooms sweeping the insects from
he rails before it, / had often been told
Il the hoppers stopping trains, but had
lever believed it until / saw it with nv
fwn eyes.
When Preached home that night my
Nv I'm, ~, - |
ny sorrowful gaze. The vegetables had
early all disappeared. A few cabbage
Jumps were sticking out of the ground
Z ruined loneliness The sweet potatoes
Fere the only thing remaining un-
armed; while my melons, what wreck
hey were The rinds and outer shells
white had all been eaten away, leaving
he juicy red meat lying upon the ground {
As | gazed into the fearful ;
yes of my wife was too full forutterancc. {
.dioining was a large ffty-acre corn !
eld. There were about dozen rows of I
orghum corn along one end, and they ,
ad not been molcsted. Ali that re- ]
aimed of the rest were the bare, hard |
alks. Everything else was eaten off /
can. The grasshoppers were in the
ouse, in the victuals on the table-Zin
As thesun sank i ii the west
9 went out in the yard. to see if there
as anything left, b'>f all we could see
;ls the c4&S}&itiSEs n'yriads of hoppers.
ne were in the air as thick as snow
axes in the driving storm; the ground
las piled with them, in some places over
foot deep. Around my lot was a high
ticket fence. This presented the appear
pee Of o solid wall OF grasshoppers five