The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1894-10-31
A FREAK EXPLAINED.
SOME QUEER BEANS ON EXHIBITION
INDAWSON.

Their Antics Not Caused by Electricity,
But by NimbIe Little Worm Secret
ed on the Inside.
In a show case at Farrar and Fauar S
drug store may be seen dozen or so OF
ordinary looking beans. But they are
not the kind of beans commonly seen
here, ard their queer antics, as they
mysteriously jump about in the plate
that holds them, attract considerable at
tention and cause no small amount OF
wonder. They are known as the jump
ing beans, and were first put on the
market by Chicago man.
He has sold them extensively through
out the country, and expects to make
handsome thing out of them before the
snow flies.
But what makes them bob up and
down in that funny Iway?' is always
The question asked by those who see
them for the first time.
1t is the general pinion that magnet
ism is the cause of the beans antics, but
such is not the case. 1t is nice, soft
little worms that do it.
Jumping beans grow on tree in Next
co. The scientific name is Carpo capsa
saltitans. The Chicago man, who is
druggist, cornered the market for jump
ing beansin the one small State in Next
CO where they grow, buying them aim 'st
as cheap as you can buy their edible
relatives. which are so popular in Boston.
You have to pay twenty-five cents for
two Of them, and they are selling every
where as fast as the famous ''Pigs-in
Clover puzzle.
Each bean contains a worm about
eleven millimeters in length by three in
width. The worm is cream colored a4d
has sixteen feet, being almost, if not an
exact counterpart of the worm which is
found in chestnuts. Three beans grow
iointed together in a berry, but one
in each berry secretes a worm. e
worms live in the beans from July i
August until April or May. The shed
of the bean is very thin and much lighter
than the worm itself, which accounts in
measure for the ability of the worm to
move its house. A chestnut is too heavy
TO be moved by its occupant.
IF the beans are laid on any fiat sur
face two distinct movements may be
observed. They will jump directly
upward about one-foulth of an inch
aud make a forward movement of about
one-eighth of an inch. The first move
ment is Intermittent and the second
almost continuous
No one understands what is the object
of the movements. A plausible suppo-
sitIOn is that the worm wishes to get
far away from the tree which yields its
house in order to escape destruction by
some small insect enemy. 1t is certain
that the worm has no desire to leave it's
shell, for it seems to be cOntented only
when it is incased in it. If a hole is
made in the shell it will soon repair the
damage by weaving q fine, silky web
over the aperture, upon the the compile
ton of which it will resume its nimble
ways. When removed from the shell
it will form another covering for itself
in the course of few hours.
The most surprising thing about this
freak of plant life is that there is no
hole in the shell where the worm could
have entered. 1t is supposed that the
egg was laid in the flower and the berry
grew around it. If you buy a pair of
dancing beans and keep them in mod
erately warm place. exposing them to
the sunlight for half an ho1r every day,
they will live until Nav