St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1896-10-24
BILL ARP ELIMINATES.
Turns to the Giories Of Nature and
Dessertates Upon Them. !.
He Is Real Panthefss Investigates
the Workings of Beetles and
Ends with rabbits and
Literature.

i / wish that l were great naturalis
| Il wish that l was botanist~or
i hortieulturist or an oTnithoIogist.
4 have great admiration for Linneus ant
Audubon and Humboldt and Agassiz
Itssee1ns to be by design that such n1el
were born to explore the mysteries O
nature and solve them, and then teac!
them to us. They are all dead, bu
they finished their life work and no
body has improved upon it. l never
| go into drug store and read the Latir
names upon the jars but what thinl
of Linneus. What work for one MAJ
to do-So walk thousands of ulilestove1
mountains and valleys, in heat anf
cold, and to study and to classify 5000
different Towering plants and in
4 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.
tion of the learned and great heswas moi
allowed to marry the girl he loved un,
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.
I was ruminating about these things
because a friend from Milledgeyille
wrote me about the large yellow but
terflies 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
fight of the swallows. For few days
| past / had noticed the number of these
| beautiful butterflies that We're 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 Ito 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 I can see two
or three or half dozen flying leisure
ly along. They are peculiar species.
are all of a size and with solid chrome
y
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 a re-
turn in the early spring? Such things
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 ap-
pie and other trees We're lying upon the
ground with withered leaves, anF HpNGn
examination they seemed to ha1A been
cut off as by tiny turning lathe; the in
cision half inch wide at the bark and
narrowing down to the center Just as
a, turning chisel would do it. Mone of
the neighbors could explain it to me, but
found out on closer investigation that
it was done by a black beetle that first
made an incisionon thetender bark and
laid her eggs like a 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 trans
formations. But how did the beetle
cut the limb so artistieally? Why, it
fastened its hand, sharp, horny mandi-
bles to the bark and then buzzed round
and round hg 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 naeteors
brighten the twilight on our lawns,
than in the electric flashes that illu-.
inmate the clouds. What are all these
thingsfor? Humboldt says there are 400
different species of hummiHg birds
What for? Why should not one kind or
ten kinds have answered the Creators
purposes? Why are millions OF flowers
born to blush unseeno mountain sides
and cliffs and in the desert. Humboldt
says there are 100000 beautiful scales
on a large butterfiy's wing, and they
can be seen and counted with micro
scope. Why should there be SO many?
Who ever sees them but God and per-
haps the angals?
But there is no limit to these mys-
teries, and no answer to these ques-
tfons. 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 fitly
spoken are like apples of gold in pic
lures of silver Now let the political
preachers take that for a 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 p Pennsylvania in the buried city of |
prehistoric Nippur-as city that the
professors and scientists, of that insti- |
tuition say is 5000 years older than |
Adam and they have the proof Of it. |
Only two years ago one of these came
professors. published a long article IN
the New York Herald asserting that |
the bones Of q man exhumed in Florida |