Barre evening telegram. (Barre, Vt.) 1898-19??, 1899-12-20
HE LIVED ON BUGS.
Nn MAN may have great deal Of
~ valuable property in his possession,

Is on desert island.
NO." replied the other, 81 mean right
here in New York"
WELL" said the scientist, II know that as
practical person you consider me very In
competent, but if you will make me a pres
ent of SOS worth of anything you choose,
| will under take to live on it for week
any one of the six largest cities in the
country"
"Vain boasting!" said the business man,
wagging his head. Suppose gave you $5Os
worth of artificial limbs or old bottles or
fountain pens or dynamite or japanese art,
or anything else for which the market is in
sense limited. You can take your choice
of any Of these and if you can give satisfac-
tory account of yourself at the end of the
week, will spend another $50 on any sort
of celebration you may designate.
''Ihe things you MENTION" said the sci
enlist, would mostly necesstate simply
diplomatic interview with dealer and
would offer no embarrassment at all. They
are all bought and sold in the city, and in
some of the cases the first pawnbroker would
solve the difficulty. Before take up your
offer | ought to tell you what | actually did
ten years ago with property which had no
quoted market value and which was in
unllely HdIueT 10 uduule IMAM any thiAS Sou
have mentioned in your list.
1.-The extent of my hold upon the scien.
| tiGc world at that time was the fact that
| was known to be laborious and conscien-
| tious collector of chronological specimens.
l had sold some specimens to leading muse
ums, and so had, in very small way,
| business connection. Now, wandering over
the face of the globe for small creatures
| that fly or crawl is not conducive to per-
sonal friendships, and when | got back to
New York after my year in Africa found
that there was not a man who knew me TO
the extent of lending me ten dollars.
This was pretty serious matter My
available assets consisted of two huge cases
of specimens, some OF them very rare and
consequently valuable, but there was not
an edible locust in the lot, and if there had
been it would have been so soaked with ar
senical prescrvatives that to eat it in any
literal manner would have solved the stu
alton more quickly than healthy young
scientific man Of % finds desirable. Y ct IN
some way had to eat those specimens. Vi
course / entered into immediate CORE
spondence with the museum people whom
knew, telling them what | had and how
they could transfer the ownership to their
various institutions, but you cannot sell rare
specimens to museum as you sell peanuts
In front Of circus tent, and knew that II
| could lay hold of ready money in six
months | might consider myself fortunate.
II had room for which l had paid a
months rent, but l was beginning to get
hungry. My last change had gone for post
age stamps with which to keep up the in
,erminablc correspondence with curators
| g., wounds Of crack
ers After the third meal on crackers tool
myself in hand and reasoned thus Crack
ers are an uninviting form of human food
even on the African coast, where nothing
else is to be procured. In city with hun
, dreds of restaurants they are uneatable
Moreover. there is no reason why scientis
} with nearly perfect duplicate collections
African lepidoptera should be reduced to 1
form of nourishment that becomes diliicu
: to swallow after the second mouthfu
Il recognized that my assets were in pc
culiarly difficult form. There are few PEG
pie whose cupdity can be excited by ento
biological specimens, however fine; so Their
were very few who would know mat tn
two packing cases were substantial ba
sis for my financial expectations. Moreover
could not mutilate the collections by TAX
| Ing from luem any VI lHC ioiS Nt'eNi@' " it'
out imparing my chances of a good marke
in the end.
"Snce it was impossible to excite people
: cupidity with my stock in trade, deter
mined to begin at the other end of the emo
tons and stir up their aversion. AS an ent(
molorist | have never been able to unde
stand the unreasonable prejudice of the res
of the world to the beautiful and interes
h,,t NV
study, but have noticed that this teelln
may be relied upon in a sufficiently lare
percentage of individuals to assume that 1t
universal. | have noticed, too, that tn
emotion is particularly strong when there
question of food involved. man who WI
= composedly eat oyster crabs out OF his blsqt
" will angrily send back the tureen from whle
e fly has slipped. Since the only feeling
The world in general about insects SCENE
o to be aversion, why could not tins he mac
n to do me as good service as its opposite!
There were, | found by consulting II
l. directory, many hundred restaurants al
=. hotels in the city in all of which, presum
i blv, an objection to an insect alive or dei
II in proximity to food would be conslder'
e. perfectly reasonable. On the strength
E. this determined to make these places OF e
S, tertainment lend me three meals day un
e. | was in position to pay for them
4. "How did | manage it? Well, began
Il, lhe ton. In the uptown places the smalle
~, specimen of coeoptera discovered at
w. edge of my dinner plate when had near
eaten substantial meal warranted dlgl
p. fed exit from the room without any mentl
. whatever of a check. The commonest OF 1
snecimens were used in this way; In ta
- the number of places gave out long befo
the available specimens did. Then had
try the next kind of place, the sort vine
there is still savory food well served a
nerfectly cooked, but where there is 60
deal more noise and less time to apolos>
for unfortunate accidents Harmless d
terra excited less remorse here and dignlll
exit on the strength of unfamiliar forms
the euler in the cream jug was not alwa
understood. TO awaken a stronger sci
of enormity | had to produce more dang
Gus looking enemies to my peace OF mil
Inch-long larvae, however, would comma
the attention of the head waiter and preve
n the increase of my righteous, but artfll
IL repressed wrath by any mention OF comp
sation for the meal.
"My Waterloo came when | had to co
down to the ten and l5cent diningrool
From that time my living came to
very precarious | found that IN
ordinary case simple removal of the corr
lelicti was supposed to meet the situati
and the idea that its temporary presel
Of near my meal in any way invalidated
low rights of the house had to be introduced
ub. myself, and was often not received W
prompt recognition.
"Well, how did you come out in the enc
asked the patient listener.
tim my old professor turned up on his