The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1896-01-08
THE ENTOMOSTRACA,
A NATURAL HISTORY OF BUGS.
WHERE THE HONEY GOES.

the people of Minnesota, for the sup
port of the state. county, townships and
school district governments, amount
ed to over thirteen million dollars annual.
ly! And when we showed him the
State Auditors report, in proof Of the
correctness of our figures, he ex-
claimed:-"Where, in the name of the
Lord, does it go?"
We have just picked up copy Of
book, published this year, by this
state, at the expense Of the tax-pay
ers, which answers the question as to
where part Of it disappeared. 1t is
entitled-'S Second Report of the
State Zoologist, including Synopsis
Of the Entomostraca Of Minnesota
1t is ponderous volume and contains
625 pages! Tied up in wheat sack it
would constitute formida BILE weapon
Of defense or offense in street fight.
We observed in the introduction
that a great deal of the credit, for
this massive production, was due to
Hen. john S. Pillsbury. We jumped
therefore to the conclusion that 1T had
something to do undoubtedly with the
Wheat Ring, apd that the Entonlos-
trdca were probably the chaps the
farmers had been trying to get on the
track Of And we were the more con-
firmed in this view by the fact that
considerable space was devoted to an
account of the Family Harpacti-
cida, (which we took to mean a
family Of harpies that cut somebody's
throat; and this we thought must be
either the elevator men or some other
beasts Of the same kidney.
And then we found on page 172 this
heading:
CERIODAPHNIA QUADRANGULAM UEL-
LER;
and this we concluded was some ref
erence to Charley Pillsbury paying
Brother Muller, $1,000 some years
ago, to issue the circulars which per-
suaded the farmers to hold their
wheat" until Charley could get out
from under. And here is the descrip-
ton which follows this heading:
Head depressed" Chats Charley
exactly rounded at the end. "(which
end?-For Charley's head is we'll
developed at the the back part;) ''Only
slightly angled;" (to be sure); fornices
prominent, "(what that? 1t has a very
suspicious sound); "attenules long"
(got US again; but we think we smell
ID mice;) 'post-abdomen narrow; (now
this may be true as to Charley's post
abdomen, for we have never examined
f,,1I hut Il Il 10
as handsome and broad and full as
bay window in Olson's store during
Christmas week,) ''of equal width for
the lower half, rounded at the end,
with about eight small spines." CA
critical examination Of Charley may
justify all these charges; we raise no
issue on that; but what interest has
the general public in Charley's aldo
men and spines, that the state should
spend the peoples money to set it
forth in CPS page volume?) "Claws
smooth, length about 6 m m" (Ah!
now we begin to see daylight
Charley's claws, we are told, are six
thou sand miles long. We should say
so:-they reach from the A tlantic to
the Pacific) And smooth" (Ncw
you're shouting. They are the
smoothest set of claws that we're ever
inserted into farmers granary to
draw out the wheat and leave the
screenings.) 'This species resembles
a smooth clawed d. reticuloto." OF
course it does;-all the wheat specula-
tors are constructed after the same
pattern. There is evidently typo
graphical error here, for the sd"
should have been 3D.; and the
"reticulata" evidently means that
the scamp, whoever he is, was not
satisfied to steal the old mans wheat
but he also pocketed the old lady's
"reticule.'
But after we had exhausted our
learning and science in this interpre.
tation, which did justice alike to our
head and Charley's stomach, we found
out that we were mistaken, and that
this great volume, with its thousands
of beautiful pictures, did not refer to
the Plllsbury family at all; or to the
Wheat Ring; or the MillerS' ASSocia-
tion; or to the taX-eaters generally:
but to lot of minute bugs, which
live mainly in ponds and puddles of
dirty water, and which are of no mere
apparent use, in the economy of the
universe, than are Christopher Norrlsh
or John Columbus Andrews or Will
liam G.. Piles or J. G.. La Due.
Here we have, (p. 213,) subsection
entitled. Genus I}yocriptus. Ilyocryp-
ttts sordidus-Lterin: and we are fur
ni>hcd with the startling informal
tion that European observers have
never found more than few speci-
mems Of this species at any one time
AT two different times this summer |
have found this species, in great num-
berS. in the mud, at the bottom of Il
small pool, on the Clark university
campus, at South Atlanta, Georgia"
And here follows an exact and lucid
description Of the tank and the mud,
in which lives this unnecessary crea-
ture. with the long name But what
use the breed is to man or beast the
professor fails to set forth. 1t does
III + 4 4 4 n aGA EAkkk1N