The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-12-09
COMING OF THE CHRISTOPHER.
Graphically Described by a Witness Of
the Insect Plague Years Ago.

A. S. Cody in New York Independent.
1t was a memorable summer indeed. to
the poor farmer. But the worst of his life
was not yet upon him. The spring had
been full of promise. The wheat, which
had been cut before the hail came, was the
best we had ever had. The whole spring
until July had been moist and propitious
and full of promise. But with that ter
rible hail-storm began disaster, and dis
aster piled on disaster until it seemed
that there would be literally nothing left
to eat or wear or even think upon in hope.
The last of the great disasters was the
coming of the grasshoppers.
Up to that time grasshoppers had never
been seen or known on the plains. We
had not even heard of them or their COM
ing. 1t was well on in August, and the
drought had done its worst to the corn.
1t was a hot, sultry day. as parched and
dry as all the days before. The sky was
clear but for the usual haze that never
left it, the haze of wearing heat. About
noon my father came up from the field
and summoned us to see something that
looked like snow The air about the sun
seemed filled with snowfakes, thick, innu-
merable, and fitting rapidly as snow
makes 10. out SUOMlldktS anu lnt Nltdi
atmosphere and the hot day were quite
incompatible things. They could not be
snowflakes; but what else could they be?
We racked our brains in vain to imagine.
Perhaps it was some kind of a cyclone
which had lifted leaves and dust and
other such things into the air But there
were no signs of that; and every one of
the snowhakes was of a regular size, with
no such irregularity as sticks and
branches and leaves carried into the air
would present.
We ate dinner in puzzled uncertainty
as to what was hanging over us. But
two hours later it was painfully apparent
what the snowflakes in the sun really
were. They were full-gr grasshop-
pers. By o'clock the air was clear and
serene, and the grasshoppers were with
us They were not "a few thousand in,
sects, miserable little pests! fitting about
in the air and getting into your face
when you were outside. They were mill
lions. The trees became brown with
them. They covered the corn as some
insects will literally hide from view a leaf
sometimes. They were hungry too and
began to eat. Leaves, cornstalks, the
bark of trees, anything and everything
was needed to fill this ravenous army
that had fallen upon us from heaven. One
went outdoors and stepped on scores at
each stride. They crawled up your trou-
ser's leg, and under women's skirts They
made holes in the cloth fly-netting and
came into the house. They pumped
hard into your face with a little whacking
sting wherever you went or did not go.
Everything seemed alive with them.
l was young then, and was filled simply
with curious wonder. But as I think of
It now, am sure my father must have
been quite overpowered with discoura pc
ment when he. saw what the grassbonnsrs
really meant He saw on the first day
that they had aiighted to get a square
meal and certainly meant to have II Rlt
day after day they fingered and new ter
rors developed in them They had aHgb+-
ed TO lay their eggs. The soft earth in the
plowed fields seemed to please them for
this purpose, and each day YOU might so,.
grasshoppers, an inch and a half or two
inches long, boring their tails into the
ground until only their heads Remained
above. There they would stay from morn
ing until night and then go away. If Won
examined this earth nest when +ba bird
had flown. you would find a soft siIl,I.
cocoon MED with innumerable small
PUPPY eggs which meant a whole cron of
grasshoppers the following spring
Another popularity which these nes+s
had was that they would hon about 49,,
'teld to field They evidently selected tb,1
choicest food first and when thai mo-
gone tackled the less appetizing So
farmers thought they were going IN es-
cape neasurably, but the thought was
vain. The grasshoppers stayed several
weeks and during that time they went
through pretty much everything ,rba,,
were frightfully thorough beasts rit.Is
hut stalks and stems We're left when tber,
had done with corn or trees or vines ~
shrubs. 09 VI
But some day they would go. and Some
day it would rain, and during that torribie
Visit OF the grasshoppers we did little but
pray for the coming of the end ere ~
should go away pretty soon and tf
should rain the corn might come ont again
and We would get something" said me ~
Their. But as day after day passed -
faded little by little. The crops of tbst
year were practically ruined, and there in