Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1897-03-14
ECHOES FROM ALTON.
A DIET IN THE COUNTRY THAT Is
COMPULSORY.
A Dissertation on Frogs-The Tree
Variety and It's Charms-Diet ms
Medicine-Personsl and General
Notes.
correspondence OF the Dispatch.)
Notes.

withstand and we have, without money
and without price. all the requisites for
healthful and spiritual abstemousness.
So restricted, II Is not hard to resist tho
world, the flesh, and the devil. At the
head of our limited menu. and most
palatable, we count eggs-that is. we
count the eggs that are to be Matched,
and eat the balance ad libittun. Next
are the flsh--suckers, trout, catfish. and
horny chub-that, strange to say, begin
to come up" when the last filmy ice belt
Is broken, and the gurgling. ripping
streams are running down TO tidewater.
Our other edible is the frog. There is
probably nothing In the kingdom of flesh
except a politicjan--which meets with
more remarkable changes in its natural
life than a frog. l was thinking OF this
the other evening, when / heard the
drum major and the shrll, little soprano
in a frog opera. They were tuning up the
orchestra for the spring concerts, L knew.
and we had reserved seats on the old
mil-race. Live enough they were now
in sound and motion. and yet, so little
while ago, mere structureless. shapeless
granules. The frog begins as an egg from
nothing, and matches out as a fish--that
alone through it's gils. 1t is a wonder
full study / had rather watch a school
of tadpoles, squirming molecules Of car
bon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen,
darling about in groups through the ooZy
wastes than to read Darwin. All the
same / don't believe 1 was ever a proto-
plasm, and / can recognize no natal
affinity between frog and even my
worst enemy. IL / thought so, I would
never eat another frog-leg, dipped in
eggs and fried with bread-crumbs, and
l would set Rover and the big mastiff on
the boys when they come up the creek
at night gigging for frogs by torchlight.
During its early life the tadpole swms
by sculling with a long tail, and would
easily win in a college race with boats
crew. After a time its legs begin TO grow
out, the hind legs-surviyal Of the iittest-
coming first. The tail gets shorter and
shorter until the frog, pulled up by
vanity and metamorphosis, drops it's
caudal and swims by kicking.
EAT WATER PLANTS.
The tadpoles cat water plants and
relish the green moss that we see on
stagnant pools. They are really useful
creatures in this, as they devour a great
amount Of matter that would make it
unhealthful to live near ponds or marshes.
The one proof of evolution, that l won
der has not struck the scientists is the
ready adaptation of the frog TO a higher
estate. Like man, as the tadpole
cends his appetite grows choice. He
is no longer a vegetarian, but feeds on
animal life, and has even been known
to nbble at the toes Of the bad boy who
wades the streams for pull at the sleek
croakers.
The frog is fond of gay colors and is
I nv nj
BY the Greeks, the frog was considered
a sacred emblem of preservation against
floods and foundations. Virgil looked
upon il as the emblem of poetic inspira-
ton. especially OF the inflated kind. Vir-
Gil should have known; but that, l guess,
is why the spring poet and the frog ar
rive simultaneously.
The common frog is divided into
classes. such as the marsh. spring,
wood-shad-, and wood-frog They have
mostly green shoulders and dusky spots.
and are found from Maine to Florida.
AS TO NERVES.
No city belle. pampered by life Of
! ennui and elegance. was ever so nervous
as a frog Beneath their thin skin is
/ whole network OF delicate nerves OF
| such peculiar sensitiveness that they
] change color with the fluctuation of a
! chameleon. Worry or fright will turn
1 a frog from a light to a deep-green, and
placed I'm a dark room they will turn
black; but bush of green leaves put
near instantly restores their natural
color.
We have all heard OF the painter who
/ tried to paint frog I'm the colors nature
| had given. \ great naturalist wanted the
picture and the artist tried over and
again. in vain, to get the colors of the
frogs green and shaded skin and the
iridescent brightness OF his eyes. At
last. after many efforts, he called mis-
| patron to come.
There was the frog. as natural as life,
| with spots of golden-brown on the smooth
green Of his back and an eye that gilt
tered like a jewel.
"Ahaw cried the French savant 0his
/ is a French yarn. / think.
But it is exquistel 1t Is perfect
We will hang him in the grand
salon"
And then the frog hoped away-llke
the bird that came 10 peck Murilo's
cherries.
But the tree-frog f. the daisy; he is
the only frog l would give "A days fish
/ ing for. and he would never be caught
| by a hook. The tree-frog Is a hoodoo.
/ lie is the rarest and most costly of
/ frogs his commercial value not being
| in his hind legs-because one would
| might as well eat the Delphine oracle
| but in his bones. How 10 utilize the
| tree-frog was given I'm a recipe by an
| old negro "cunjer woman" to a party
/ OF summer girls last year. and every
/ last one Of them is waiting until the
/ tree-frog comes again to try the charm
! because this frog is only available when
the weather is warm and other aids
| are proptious. Get a tree-frog-this is
| the hardest part of the oracle-and go at
midnight alone TO bury ii beneath a
tree. After four moons go again, some
| hour and in secret, and resurTect the
| remains; place I'm a close tin box, which
| l think would be very necessary, and
| cremate next day in hot ashes. Take
| from the powder the whittier dust Of
| the bones and sift. 1t is then ready
for use. One tiny pinch in a letter or
| glove or sprinkle in the heart of a flower,
will settle a love affair tighter than
season at Saratoga or pas bank account.
| Granny said this was the charm of the
voudoo cult and OF the creoles Of
Louisiana.
ON DIET.
Outside of keeping Lent It Is astonish-
ing what prominence has been given TO
the question of diet in later years.
1t has taken the place of medicine,
and certainly appears to be the out
| come of a reaction against the extremes
| either way OF flesh and leanness. TO say
| nothing of hardening the muscles, and
| driving dyspepsia to the ills that were.
In truth. every woman seems soberly
| eating along some special course, for
other than penitential causes and most
| " with a view TO enchanting her per-
| sonal charms No matter what an all
ment may be called, there is a diet out
| lined all the way for smoothing early
wrinkles to covering bald heads. Quite
a dozen women whom l have met in