The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-07-23
LIKE MERCHANDISE.

EXPORTED LIKE MERCHANDISE
During 1895 we exported S5S, 900, 600
worth of silver. 1t goes out of the coun-
try as merchandise, and is treated just
as If it were SO much pig iron or wheat
All of it is handled by few brokers in
New York, who advance money to the
refiners to en- able them to pay for the ore
that comes from the mines. The reflners
forward the stuff to New York in the
shape of bricks of about LOO ounces
each. marked with the finepess. The brok-
ers ship the ingots to Liverpool, whence
they are sent by rail to London. Lon
don is the silver market of the world, and
there they are dealt in like any other
commercial commodity, being finally
Brazil, and other parts of the world.
The American ingots go by the name of
cake silver" Considerable quantities
OF them go to China, where they are out
into pieces for sort of currency that
goes by weight. The pieces are called
'taels. %
Many new industrial uses for silver
nave been founds within recent years,
THANKS to the increasing oheapnoss of the
metal. Not so very long ago only rich
people were able to afford a table service
OF solid silver, but now the luxury is
within reach of the householder Of very
moderate means. 1t is common thing
for jewelers. to advertise spoons OF sterl-
Ing silver for their weight in silver dol
lars. There is good reason to believe
that before long the metal will be much
cheaper than at present. The mines on
the Rookies have only been peoked at up
TO date. Deposits recently struck in
Colorado have yielded $12, 600 ton. tx
plotting such ores is like digging for
wealth in the vaults of the Treasury. A
single pocket in the Park Regent mine
at Aspen. Colo. about as big as good
sized room, yielded 500. 900.
GoLDBUGs, sILvERBUGs, sTRAD.
DLEBUGS.
What is all this talk about goldbugs,
silverbugs, and straddlebugs? Are there
any such creatures in the insect world.
The answer is yes.
There are eeveral species of bugs which
are reputed to contain considerable guam
titles of gold and silver. On account of
this belief people sometimes gather them
and boil them. The most popular gold
producing insect is the golden roseohafer,
which IL known to science as Cetonia
aurata IL is very handsome yellow
beetle, with metallic luster, about as
big as the end of a mans thumb.
But the most remarkable goIdbugs in
the world are found in Central America
They belong to the genius Plusiotis, and
one might easily imagine specimen TO
be the work of some clever artificer in
metal. The head and wing-casss are
brilliantly polished, with luster as of
gold itself. To sight and touch they
have all the seeming of metal, and it is
hard to realize that the creature is a
mere animal. Oddly enough, there is
another species of Plusiotis, from the
same region. which has the appearance of
being wrought in solid silver, freshly
FURNISHED.
These gold and silver beetles have
market value. They are worth from s25
to $50 each. The finest collection of
them in existence today is owned by Wal
ter Rothsohild of the English banking
firm. Though a young man. only %
years If age, he has already spent $500, 900
on beetles. Every year he sends two men
to Central America to gather beetles.
One OF the most beautiful bugs in the
world is small beetle known to science
as the 'blue Hoplia" Its back is an
exquisite irridesoent sky -blue, and the
under part of its body is of bright sill
yer hue. The notion that it contains sill
yer is widely entertained, and attempts
have frequently been made to extract sill
YER from it.
In parts of Europe the ignorant people
are confident in their belief that the So
called Hsilversm1th'' contains more or
less precious metal. 1t looks like a big
June bug, it's color being between silver
and gold. For both of these metals it
has been melted many and many q time
formerly 1t was supposed to be quite a
rarity, SO that specimen was worth So
or more. But it was discovered few
years ago that this beautiful beetle was
very common In cottonwood trees, on
the leaves OF which 1t feeds. and it Is
cheap enough now. If you know where
such trees are to be found you may gath
er hundreds of the 'silversmiths'' in a
dizzy. 1t used to be commonly believed
that these insects lived exclusively in
chimneys, and happy was the household
or who CHANGED upon one, for it was sup
posed to bring good luck and the promise
of wealth.
Tho notion of extracting gold and sill
yer from insects seems to be of very an
Gent origin. When people fail In the
process they are convinced usually that
there WAS something wrong with the
method employed In Mexico the ma
tives believe that the surest way to find
"a gold or silver mine is to watch gold
or silver beetle and follow it. Painstak-
ingly pursued, 1t is almost sure to lead
the seeker to the deposit of precious met
al, or mayhap to "a buried treasure
Thus far only golibugs and sllverbugs
have been discussed; the straddlebugs
remain to he considered. This is not 90
easy, because there is an extraordinary
number of species One European col
leotor has succeeded in getting together
1000 species of straddlebugs. The strao-
dlebugs are dung beetles; they are the
little fellows who Toll balls of animal ex-
crement and lay their eggs in them.
When the eggs are Matched the young
larvae feed on the material of the ball
until they are able to take care of them
selves. Some of the straddlebugs have