The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1896-11-07
BILL ARP'S LETTER.
FINDS PLEASURE IN THE INvEs-
TIGATION OF DAME NATURE.
He Dissertates Upon Beetles, Rabbits
and Literature.

AhduDou huu lluMuOtt uuu AShnotAs
1t seems to be by design that such
men were born to explore the myster-
les of nature ard solve them, and then
teach them to rs. They are all dead.
but they finished their life work and
nobody has improved upon it. I never
go into drug store and read the Lat
in names upon the jars but what l
think of Linneus. What 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 Towering plants
and innumerable others that did not
Hover. Poor as charity during his
carly manhood I; for weeks and months
actually suffering for food; and even
when his earnest work began to attract
attention of the learned and great he
YVES not allowed to marry the girl he
loved until, like Jacob, he had been
put ON five years. probation. How he
was enriched, honored and ennobled
in his latter life is matter of history
and is pleasant reading.
was Illuminating about these things
because a friend from Milledgeville
wrote me about the large yellow but
terdies 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
annual change of place is as certain as
the flight of the swallows. For few
days past I 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 grace
full flight, 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 minute passes but
what 1 can see two or three or half
dozen flying leisurely along. They are
q peculiar species, are all OF 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 win
ter is coming, AMI when? Where
is their journeys end? Where
will they stop to lay their eggs and
die, and what will be the transforma-
ton that brings new butterflies to life
for return in the early spring? Such
thinPs are to be observed and studied,
but who does it? Some years ago when
| was farming / observed that hundreds
of small branches of the persimmon
and the apple and other trees were
lying upon the ground with withered
leaves, and upon examination lhey
seemed to have been cut off as by a
tiny turning lathe; the incision half
inch wide at the bark and narrowing
down to the center just as turning
chisel would do it. None of the Majors
could explain it to me, but / found out
on closer Investigation that it was done
by black beetle that first made an
incision on the tender bark and lad
her eggs like locust and then pro-
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 transformations. But how
did the beetle cut the limb SO ar
tisticaly? Why it fastened its hard.
sharp, horny mandibles to the bark
and then buzzed round and round by
the power of it's wings until the work
was done. What a wonderful me-
chanic is this beetlel What wonder
full study in nature! There is more
unsolved science il the lightning bugs,
that like little meteors brighton the
twilight on our lawns, than in the
electric flashes that illuminate the
clouds. What are all these things for?
Humboldt says there are 400 different
trecies Of humming birds. What fots
Why should not one kind or ten kinds
have answered the Creators purpose?
Why are millions of flowers born to
blush unseen on mountain sides and
cliffs and in the desert? Humboldt says
there are 800, 900 beautiful scales Oh
large butterdy's wing. and they can be
seen and counted with a microscope.
Why should there be 30 manyp Who
ever sees them but God, and perhaps
the angelsp
But there is no limit to these mys-
Series, and no answer to these ques-
lions. And so I will forbear. There
seems to be bigger things before the
people now. The paramount question
is gold or silver and even tho preach
ers have engaged in the discussion.
DR.. Parkhurst and Tom Dixon and
some OF the southern ministers have en-
tered the arena and are trying to con-
vert sinners, not to repentance, but to
gold or silver, according to their
views. They have searched the SC If.
lures to find something about gold
and silver that they can torture aud
twist to their side. But there is only
one text that has any bearing upon it
and that is one OF Solomon's proverbs,
which says, "Words fifty spoken are
IKE apples of gold in pictures OF sill
don't watch the university will upset
all the chronology of the Bible and
make Moses to be myth or fraud,
for if there ia any ono thing more care
fully stated than another in the Mosaic
account of the creation and succession,
it is the precise ages of every man in
the line of succession from Adam to
Noah and Noah to Abraham. Science
has no respect for sacred history and
every few years comes out with some