The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-04-24

freq can be will more than likely exclaim:
"Hellol! There's his forelegsr'
That Is evidently just what the frog,
in its ludicrous character of polliwog,
wants the observer to think, FOR il adds
to the humorous surprise 1t has In store
for him when 1t suddenly sprouts another
pair of legs, and the observer finds that,
although the first ones had their roots close
behind the polliwog's ears. they were, new
ertheless, its hind legs, and the new legs
pop out in front of them, and are, of
course, themselves the foreegs. This joke
of the frogs is so good that the whmsi-
cal thing quickly adds still another change
to its makeup, so that it can itself enjoy
the joke. TINS is the metamorphosis of
the three mouths into one mouth that
reaches clear across the polliwogs face.
and the joeose wiggler looks up and smiles
an expansive smile.
During all the time that the frog mas
querades as a polliwog 1t gorges itself on
a strictly vegetable diet, and If it had
been scooped out of the water and kept
out few minutes death would have claim
ed IL for its own. But when the frog had
exhibited its leg show to its satisfaction, 1t
trades off ats gills for a pair of lungs,
changes its fish-heart for the heart of
reptile, discards it's grasshopper intestinal
arrangement for set of digesters of the
oarnivorous order, hauls itself out of the
water onto a bog or upon the shore among
the rushes and cocks its bullying eye at
the observer in a rollcking way, plainly
informing him thereby that IL would be
pleased to know what he thinks of II as
full-blown lizard. The frog hasn't
thing with it now that IL started an with
as polliwog, except its eel tail 1t hasn't
been long landlubber, though, before it
begins to hump its back and to develop
further the mouth that is TO become the
great attraction of its features when II
graduates as the finished frog
while It's mouth is encroaching on the
space between its nose and it's shoulders.
and the hump on its back looms up higher
and higher on the horizon, the frog is not
unmindful of its tail. Whether 1t draws
that in and stores 1t under the hump to
brace the hump into more stable promi-
nenee, or what it does with it, the observer
will fail to learn. This is a piece of leger-
domain which the frog adds to its other
artistic attainments. and even while the
spectator is gazing upon the side-splttng
incident of a regular made frog sporting
tail half as long as It's body, prestol the
frog rises with a spasmodic jerk, cleaves
the air IN a parabolic curve, and comes
down in the water kerchunk. AS the frog
cleaves the dir the observer will see that
the mad wag has so manipulated his body
that thereby no longer hangs a tail. The
spectator may look around for 1t as long
as he pleases, but he won't find 1t. This
performance is a genuine case of now
you see il and now you don't Nobody
Knows where the frogs tail goes during
this little exhibition of batrachian magic.
except the frog that owned It, unless the
Pike county theory Is correct.
This theory holds that the occultation
of the frogs tail is the result of a scien-
. 40 furtc ba II q the mOmant
1t rises to vault and kerchunk. The twist
DESTROYS the amicable relations that exist
ed between the frogs rear elevation and
the tail, and breaks them up in business
at the old stand, only to bring them, how
ever, into closer copartnership elsewhere.
1.-THE scientific twist, the unique Pike
county theory declares, hurls the tail for
ward. II sails over the frogs head like
comet AS the frog leaps II opens its
mouth and gathers in the flying tail. The
tail takes root in the frogs mouth. and
becomes q faithful and serviceable tongue
ever afterward This is a startling theory,
but you need not hesitate to believe 1t.
You can with safety believe anything thar
is told you about the frog.
ut was undoubtedly at this period In
the life of the frog, when it had disposed
of the last visible reminder of It's protean
youth, that the supremacy of its drolery
was recognized and recorded and yet the
frog had then quit being as funny as 1t
was able to be; at least, so far as extern
ais went. But If the observer had only
thought of investigating the interior of
the frog that had struck him as being
the incarnation of all things funny he
would have found a combination Of gro
tesqueness that would have made the SUI
perficial comicality of the frog appear
commonplace. He would have found that
the front end Of the frogs tongue was its
hind end-whether the transmigration of
the fugitive tail was responsible for the
tongue or not. The frog has its tongue
made so that the root of 1t is grounded on