The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-04-22
Remarks on a Familiar Friend.

The government entomologist furnishes
some interesting facts about your old and
familiar friend. the cockroach. He halls
originally from Lapland. How he got to
this country is not stated probably it
was by the same rapid transit means that
/ he has spread himself all over the CONT.
neBt. He may have sprinted the dis
tance, in which case he probably left
home after breakfast and arrived here in
time 70 tumble into the cream jug at tea.
I No feat of sprinting by a lusty cockroach
+ will be deemed impossible by those who
/ have watched him burn the wind when
an attempt was made to capture MIN
/ alive. According TO mis- inches, the cock
roach is about ten times faster than
/ Florida hotel special train, and if that
race the other day had been participated
in by a cockroach brought up to locomo-
tive size, neither the S. F. and w. nor the
F. c. and P would have been in the race
anywhere on this side of Jacksonville.
The entomologist goes on to say that
although the cockroach is a universal
feeder, it prefers wheat -four TO all other
articles of diet. II is, therefore, a COM
mon pest about bakeshops. and. notwith-
standing the utmost care on the part of
the baker, il sometimes becomes imbedded
in thedough and baked in the loaf" This
is a kind of unexpected defense of the
baker and the cook. Hereafter when
you discover the ''blatta orientalis'-
that's the cockroach's book name-em-
bedded in your breakfast roll, or at din
ner in the pudding, don't swear at the
baker or the cook; remove the specimen
carefully, place it on the rim of your
plate as though it were plum, and re-
fleet upon the official declaration that
even the utmost care on the part of the
baker cannot circumvent the cockroach's
determination to appease his appetite.
And, furthermore, you ought to be thank
full that only the single specimen con-
fronts you, for the entomologist says
there are 800 species of the family CLASH
fed in the British museum, and that
each species is as perpetually hungry for
wheat -four as every other. Suppose
one representative from each branch of
the family had taken part in the prepa-
ration of your rolll
Our friend, the scientist-man of
wonderful versatility that he is-has a
defense for the cockroach. That state
ment is almost enough to raise question
as to the entomologist's veracity, but as
he has nothing to expect from the cock
roach for bearing false witness in his
favor, what he says is entitled to some
consideration. "They are the best of
household scavengers," he says, "be-
sides which they devour all small vermin
in their usual nightly patrol"
His next statement, however, explodes
theory that afforded lots of comfort,
and more than Offsets anything good that
might have been said about the cock
roach as q scavenger. Did you ever find
in corner of the china-closet, or the cup
board, or the refrigerator, or the linen
closet, or in any other of those favorite
haunts of your pestiferous little friend,
an empty shell of a cockroach2
And did you not congratulate yourself
that at least one hoary old patri-
arch had been gathered to his
fathers and left his outer covering as
an evidence Of the factl Alas, vain hope
and erroneous belief! Hear what the en-
tomoIogist says on that score: 'The eggs
of this insect are ali laid at one time and
| are incased in a purse-like pod. The egg
| cases are composed of the same elastic
material that covers the bodies of the in
| sects themselves, and when the young
| escape, it closes again and the empty
shell is left behind" Instead of the
empty shell meaning one cockroach less,
it means whole army more turned loose
to play hide and seek in the pantry,
swim in the syrup pitcher, race over the
cut glass, wade through the soup and find
sweet death in the sugar dish.