The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-08-18
THE INSECT ORCHESTRA.
Night Made Musical With the Hum of
Myrfads of Small, ShriII Voices.

Myrfads of Small, ShrilI Voices.
From the New York Sun.
There is q full insect orchestra in the
suburbs these august nights. There
must be a day shift and a night shift.
too. unless, indeed. the musicians do
double turn, for the music keeps up the
whole twenty-four hours. though 1t is
only at its full after dark. 1t has a sort
of dry and dusty sound all day. and in
competition with the daylight sounds of
business it seems Insignificant, and might
easily pass unnoticed. After night. how
ever, when the suburban sounds have
died down to the cltyward horizon, save
for the occasional hum of a trolley car.
which, not inaptly, suggests some mon
ster of the insect world, the soft MUIR
murous hum of many small voices seems
to have for its field all between earth
and sky.
Only an entomologist could Identify all
the sounds and give them names, and
that might spoil the music. The ground
work or accompaniment of the whole
is the shrill cry of the cricket, coming
from every side, now as a single voice,
now in q chorus of many, a rounded note
in minor key. There is no true bass in
this orchestra. The nearest to it is the
definite scandal, that comes athwart the
hum, the loudest, clearest not of ALL
There are smaller, dry, sharp cries, more
frequent than the katy-dids, and almost
as continuous as the crickets'. They sug-
gest a multitude of tiny explosions, or
a rude attempt to sound the Morse tele-
graphic alphabet. These make up the
great bulk of the music. but there are
others that one listens for and enjoys
There are soft fittings, and low, long,
mellow whistlings, that suggest the
''horns of elf-land family blowing"
These occasional fittings and whist
lings have narcotic power to soothe and
and comfort, while the music as a whole
suggests the presence of a multitude fill
ing air and earth. Sitting in doors. by an
open window, one believes that a step out
side must bring one in sight of those
pigmy musicians by Inyriads. But they
are found to be invisible. The music Is
the work of unseen hands, and the mind
travels back to Prosperos enchanted is
land, with its haunting music of impalpa-
BILE strings. From the wood edge comes
the music mixed with the mystery of the
night. The scene fits we'll with the soft
blurr of sounds, for a late risen waning
moon mellows meadow and woodland
Dark masses of foliage are dimly outlined
against the sky, and lawns are dappled
with moonlight and shadow. If the night
u.
the volume of sound seems to rise and
lose itself in the bare vault overhead If
the night be sultry the music is concen-
trated near the surface of the ground,
along with intensified doors of honey
suckle and other blossoms, until one can
hardly guess which sense is most preoc-
cupied.
While the moon yet falls in at eastward
windows and the night is at its finest
it is a luxury to go to bed with windows
wide, so that light, and sound and odor
float in together. There is no such lula
by for the adult as this triple, mild appeal
to the senses. Lying still one listens for
the soothing and cooling long low flute
note, and the not less musical heightened
whistle, ETHEREAL sounds that may easily
come from other creatures than insects.
AS the mellow horns are winding, sleep
gradually comes, and in the half waking
moment when the ears still take in the
music, the Midsummer Nights Dream. .
seems possible reality, and one easily
believes that peas, blossom, cobweb, moth,
and mustard seed, with multitude of
their kind, are just outside the window
After the ears are deaf in sleep, memory
and imagination rejoice in half conscious
ness that the music is going on through
all the hours of the summer night