The Van Buren press., 1896-10-24
BILL ARP ELIMINATES.
Turns to the Glories of Nature and
Dessertates Upon Them.
He + a Real Panthelst = investigates
the workings of Beetles and
Ends with Rabbits and
Literature.

wish that | were great naturalist
- wish that | was botanist OF i
hortieuIturist or an ornithologlst'
have GREAT admiration for Linneus and
Audubon and Humboldt and Agasslz.
II seems to be by design that such men
were born to explore the mysteries OF
nature and solve them, and then teach
them TO Us. They are all dead, out
they finished their life work and no
body has improved upon it. l never
90 into a drug store and read the LATIN
names upon The jars but what thihk
of Linneus. What a work for one man
TO do-to walk thousands oil miles over
mountains and valleys, in heat and
cold. and to study and TO classify S,oo2
different towering plants and IN
Vulnerable others that did not flower.
Poor as charity during his early man
hood: for weeks and months actually
suffering for food; and even when his
earnest work began to attract atten-
ton of the learned and great he was not
allowed to marry the girl he loved I'M
til. like Jacob, he had been put on five
years probation. How he was en-
riched. honored and ennobled in his
later life is matter of history and is
pleasant reading,
was Illuminating about these things
because a friend from Milledgeviile
wrote me about the large yellow but
terfies that were now migrating south
ward and asked If had observed them.
He says that next spring they may be
seen migrating northward, and this an
nual change of place is as certain as the
flight of the swallows. For few days
past | had noticed the number of these
beautiful butterflies that were passing
over our flowers in the front yard and
stopping a hurried moment TO sip honey
from their chalices and then moving
on with steady and graceful fight, but
it had not occurred to me that they
were all going one way. But they are;
and still they come and still they go;
not by hundreds nor tens, but hardly Il
minute passes but what ! can see two
or three or a half dozen flying leisure-
" along. They are peculiar Species
are all of a size and with solid chrome
yellow wings that seem less frail than
those of other varieties. What does
their flight signify? Do they know that
winter is coming, and when? Where
is their journeys end? Where will
they stop to lay their eggs and die, and
what will be the transformation that
brings new butterflies to life for re-
turn in the early spring? Such things
are to be observed and studied, but who
| does it?
Some years ago when | was farming
I observed that hundreds of small
branches of the persimmon and the APP
| pie and other trees were lying upon the
! ground with withered leaves, and upon
examination they seemed to have been
cut Off as by a tiny turning lathe; the in
cision half inch wide at the bark and
narrowing down to the center just as
a turning chsel would do it, None of
! the neighbors could explain it 10 me, but
/ found out on closer investigation that
1t was done by black beetle that first
made an ncision on the tender bark and
| ldih NJ tESH llht a. lOAAl0A anu NV II u
ceeded to cut off the limb so that it
might fall to the ground where the
larvae could hatch and then burrow in
the soil and go through natures trans
formations. But how did the beetle
cut the limb so artistically? Why, it
fastened its hard, sharp, horny mandi-
| bles to the bark and then buzzed round
and round by the power of its wings
until the work was done. What a wen
derful mechanic is this beetle What
"A wonderful study is nature. There
| is more unsolved science in the light
ming bugs, that like little mete )rs
brighten the twilight on our lawns,
than in the electric flashes hat illu-
inmate the clouds. What are all these
things for? Humboldt says there are 400
different species of humming birds.
What for? Why should not one kind or
ten kinds have answered the Creators
! purposes? Why are millions of flowers
born to blush unseen on mountain sides
and cliffs and in the desert. Humboldt
says there are 100000 beautiful scales
on large butterfy's wing, and they
can be seen and counted with a micro
scope. Why should there be SO many?
Who ever sees them hut God and per-
haps the angels?
But there is no limit to these mys-
teries, and no answer to these ques-
tons. And so / will forbear. There
seems to be bigger things before the
people now. The paramount question
is gold and silver and even the preach
ers have engaged in the discussion Dr.
! Parkhurst and Tom Dixon and some
of our southern ministers have entered
the arena and are trying to convert sin
ners, not to repentance, but to gold or
silver according to their views. They
have searched the Scriptures to find
something about gold and silver that
they can torture and twist to their side
But there is only one text that has any
bearing upon it and that is one of Solo
mons proverbs which says words fitlv
spoken are like apples of gold in pic
lures of silver" Now let the political
| preachers take that for text and stick
to it; or, maybe it would be better for
them to let politics alone and turn their
| attention to the work of the University
of Pennsylvania in the buried CITY Of
| prehistoric Nippur-a city that the
professors and scientists of that insti
tuition say is 5000 years older than
Adam and they have the proof OF s..
| Only two years ago ore of 4bnea co.,,