The Coconino weekly sun., 1894-08-02
AGRAsstioPPER aEMINIscENcE
The Man en the Cracker Box Tells e
 Timely StorN

The Man en the Cracker Box Tells
 Timely StorN
 "Ialkin' of grasshoppers," said the man on the cracker-box, ''remlnds me of the scoorge of 1872, when the country out hale was overrun with them pesky critters. Nobody knew whar they camt from and nobody knew Vbar they went to, for they come without rarnin' an they left in the same fashun. he'd kept my weather eye peeled for a week. but nary hopper did I see, when l heerd as how they was at Blair an a-coming lickety split to Decatur"
 Them were lively times," said Long Jim, the stage driver. "Lor! how scared the wimmen were with the jumpin' critters"
 "lt were afors married the widder," continued the man on the cracker-box, "when l were Twin with my sister after she come out here, an I had right smart of cabbage in the field by the house, an l warn't a-goin' to let no pack of measly grasshoppers eat 'em up, not if l knowed it. I heard after sundown as they had struck Blair, an l jes set to work an covered every one of them cabbages up with blankets and comfortables"
 An I'll bet you didn't save a one, not one," suggested Long Jim.
 "lt's right you are. didn't. When I got up in the mornin' the field was as bare as eff it had been struck by cy- clone; not thing left of them cabbage but the stalks in the ground. The hop yers had jes eaten the coverin' an the cabbage like so much provender an gone off to another country. 1 nearly cried over them cabbages."
 '"Tell us about them in the cars" said Long Jim. This gentleman from the east ain't never seen the like"
 "They stopped the cars more times than you could count on your fingers by gitting on the tracks, and makin them slippery actin like so much grease. And onct-gentlemen. you may not believe it, but it's gospel truth they pulled the bell and the engineer stopped the car stock-still. It were this away, for I were there, and see it
 
 when it stopped, and he says, says he:
 Who pulled that bell rope? Every body was scared, 'cept me, and l spoke up an says:
 "'Thc hoppers did it?'
 "'Don't talk foolishness,' says the conductor, I don't low no galoot to tend to my duties. When this train is stopped l do it myself. Don't none of you ever tetch that bell rope agin.'
 'I'd like to see ennyone tetch it now,' says l, an l pintcd it out to him weighted down with hoppers as thick IS constructor snake after it has swal- lowed d calf, an the car bell a-ringing like mad"
 "'Holy Moses,' says I, an looked skairt, but it were a fact, just the same. Them hoppers followed us into the stage, and we sat there knee-deep in 'em. Scairt? No, not much to speak of. You see, them wasn't the severn teen year locusts with big w" on their backs. These here critters were leetle slim things, kind of brown green, but Lord, how they did eat things! We folks had skeeter nets in our winders, and in two minutes after them hoppers struck us it hung in strips and threads, an they were swarmin' round the house like flies.''
 ''If they come agin," said Long Jim, .'Td jest fill up every growth thing with pizen, an then when the hoppers were all dead I'd burn 'em and use 'em for fertilizers"
 Yer mought," said the man on the cracker-box with thoughtful look, ''ifthcy sent cards a-saving' they was comin'. But when they steal on yer like thief in the night, you can't most always call1erlate just what you would do. I'm layin' for 'em this year, but they ain't sent on no advance agent with plan of campaign, as yet"
 And he enveloped himself in blue haze of smoke that forbade further dis. cussion.-Detroit Free Press.