The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-09-23
BILL ARP'S LETTER.
Arp Turns to the Glorles of Nature and
Desertates Upon Them.
dtLGnta Constitution.

atlanta Constitution
I wish that I were great natural
ist-I wish that [ were botanist Or a
horticulturalist or al arithnulogist. I
have gre;.5 admiration for Linneus
and Hudubou and Humboldt and
Agassiz. 1t seems TO me by design
that such men We're born to explore
the mysteries of nature and solve
them, aud teach them to us. They
are all dead, but they finished their
life work and nobody has improved
upon it. I never 60 into drug store
and read the latin names upon the
jars but what I think Of Linneus.
What work for one man to do-to
walk thousands Of miles over noun.
tains and valleys, in heat and cold,
and. to study and to classify 8 600 diff:
ferent fowering plants and innumera.
Bile Others that did not flower. Poor
as charity during bis early manhood;
for weeks and months actually suffer.
ing tor food and even when his ear.
nest work began to attract attention of
the learned and great he was not al
lowed to marry the girl he loved until,
like Jacob, he had been put Oh five
years probation. How he was enrich
I'd, h"nored and -nnobled in his later
life is matter of history and is pleasant
reading.
was Illuminating about these things
because 3 friend from Milledgeville
wrote me about the large yellow but
terhies that we're now migrating south
ward and asked if I had observed
them. He says that next spring they
may be seen migrating northward, and
this change of place is as certain as
the flight of che swallows. FIR 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 move
ment to sip honey from their chalices
and then moving on with steady and
graceful fight, but it had not occur
red to me that they were all going one
way But they are; and still they
come and still they 60; not by hun
dreds nor tens, but hardly a minute
passes but what can see two or three
or half doz-n flying leisurely along
They are a peculiar species, are all of
a SIZE and with solid chrome yellow
wings that seem less frail than those f
other varietieo. What does their flight
signify2 Do they know that winter is
coming, and when? Where is th.ir
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 return III
the early spring? Such things are to
be observed and studied. but who does
it? Some years ago when l was farm
ing [ observed that hundreds Of small
branches of the persimmon and The
apple and other trt es we're lying upon
the ground with withered leaves, and
upon examination they seemed to have
been cut off as by a tiny turning lathe
the incision a half inch wide at the
bark and narrowing down to the cen-
tre just as turning chisel would do
it None of the nabrrs could explain
it to me, but ] f und out on closer in
vestigaticn that it was done by black
BEETLE, that first madr an incision on
the tender bark and laid her eggs like
a locust and then proceeded to cut of
the limb so that it might fall to the
ground where the larvae could hatch
and then burrow in the soil and g.
through narure's transformations. But
how. did the beetle cut the limb 70 ar
tisticaIly? Why it fastened its bard,
sharp, horny mandibl,s to the bark
and then buzzed round and round by
the power of its wings until the work
was done. What wonderful me.
chanic is this beetle. What a won
derful study is nature. There is m"re
unsolv. d sciencein the lightning bugs
that like little meteors brighten the
twilight on our lawns than in the elec-
trio flashes thas illuminate the clouds.
What are all these things for? Hum
b"lt says there are 400 different spe-
cies # humming birds. What FIR?
Why should not one kind or ten kinds
have answered the Creators purposes?
Why are millions of flowers burn to
blush unseen on mountain sides and
cliffs and in the desert? Humbolt
says there are s00.n00 beautiful scales
on a large butteIfy'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 angels7
But there is no limit to these mys-
teries, and no answer to th' Sc questions
and so | will forebear. Tlere seems to
be bigger things before the people
now. The paramount question is gold
or silver, and even the preachers are
engaged in the discussion. DR.. Park
hurst and Tom Dixon and some of our
southern ministers have entered the
arena and are trying to convert sin
Ders, not to repentance, but to gold OF
silver, according to their views They
have SEARCHED The scriptures to find
something about gold and silver thar
they can torture and twist to their side.
But there is ouly one text thai has
any BEARING upon it and that Is one of
Solomon's proverbs which says swords
itly spoken are like apples Of gold in
pictures of silver" Now let the polit-
ical preachers take that for text and
s.ick to it; or, maybe it would be bet
ter for them to let politics alone and
turn their attention to the work of the
University Of Pennsylvania in the bur-
led city of prehistoric Nippur-a city
that the professors and scientists Of
that institution saw liz three thousand