The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1896-10-31
BILL ARP ELIMINATES.
Turns to the Glories OF Mature and
Dessertatss Upon Them.
no IA q Real Panthsist = Investigates
the workings OF Beetles and
Ends with Rabbits and
Liternture.

I wish that / were a great naturalist
~ wish that / was a botanist or a
ho~rticulturist or an o~rnithologist I
have great admiration for Linneus and
Audubon and Humboldt and Agassiz.
1t 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, but
they finished their life work and no
body has improved upon it. l never
go into a drug store and read the Latin
names upon the jars but what / think
Of Linneus. What a work for one man
to do-to walk thousands of miles over
mountains and valleys, in heat and
cold, and to study and to classify 5000
different lowering 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 UNI
til, like Jacob, he had been put IN Ave
years probation. How he was en-
riched, honored and ennobled in his
later life is matter Of history and is
pleasant reading.
/ was Eliminating about these things
because a friend from Milledgeville
wrote me about the large yellow but
terhies that were now migrating south
ward and asked il I 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
fight of the swallows. For a few days
past l 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 flight, but
It had not occurred to me that they
were all going one way. Butthey are;
and still they come and still they go;
not by hundreds nor tens, but hardly 4
minute passes but what I can see two
or three or a half dozen flying leisure
ly along. They are a peculiar species,
are all of a size and with solid chrome
yellow wings that seem less frail than
those of other varieties. What does
I their flight signify? Do they know that
Z winter is coming, and when2 Where
{ is their journeys end? Where will
: they stop to lay their eggs and die, and
Q what will be the transformation that
{ brings new butterflies to life for a re-
turn in the early spring? Such things
9 are to be observed and studied. but who
? does it?
y Some years ago when I was farming
! I observed that hundreds of small
$ branches of the persimmon and the ap'
| pie and other trees were lying upon this
= ground with withered leaves, and upor
y examination they seemed to have beer
e cut off as by a tiny turning lathe; the in,
cision a half inch wide at the bark anC
q narrowing down to the center just a.
a turning chisel would do it. None o
the neighbors could explain it to me, bu
le / found out on closer investigation tina
! It was done by a black beetle that frs
: made an incision on the tender bark ant
laid her eggs like a locust and then PRO
ceeded to cut off the limb so that j
I might fall to the ground where tn
: larvae could hatch and then burrow il
: the soil and go through natures trans
formations. But how did the beetl
y cut the limb so a~rtistically? Why, i
fastened it's hand, sharp, horny mandi
:, bles to the bark and then buzzed roun
and round by the power of it's wing
until the work was done. What a wcn
}. derful mechanic is this beetle! VIVA
a wonderful study is nature. Their
. is more unsolved science in the light
ming bugs, that like little meteor
= brighten the twilight on u lawni
= than in the electric flashes that illJ
inmate the clouds. What are all thes
t~hingsfor? Humboldt says there are 40
= different species of humming bird
y What for? Why should not one kind G
ten kinds have answered the Creator
Z purposes? Why are millions of flower
y born to blush unseen on mountain side
and cliffs and in the desert HumbolC
says there are 100000 beautiful scale
- on a large butterly's wing, and the
can be seen and counted with a micr,
u scope. Why should there be SO many
- Who ever sees them but God and pc
haps the angels?
he But there is no limit to these my
he teries, and no answer to these que
On tions. And so / will forbear. The
IN seems to be bigger things before t
people now. The paramount questi'
Is gold and silver and ever the preac
al ers have engaged in the discussion. I
i Parkhurst and Tom Dixon and son
i of our southern ministers have enter,
the arena and are trying to convert 81
i ners. not to repentance, but to gold
silver according to their views. TIL
have searched the Scriptures to fl
Is something about gold and silver TIL
they can torture and twist to their siC
~ But there is only one text that has Al
.ce bearing upon it and that is one Of So
ri mons proverbs which says words fl
On spoken are like apples of gold in p
lures of silver" Now let the polite
preachers take that for a text and sti
to it; or, maybe it would be better !
them to let politics alone and turn TIN
attention to the work Of the Universe
! i of Pennsylvania in the buried city
prehistoric Nippur-a city that
professors and scientists of that ms
de-. tuition say is 1900 years older tn
= Adam and they have the proof of