The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-07-22

lJldHIeu anu IIldG grew up 10 tDe SHY.
1t came in a letter coiled up like lit
tie green snake and j thought at first
it was a snake. 1t is about the size
of an average wax bean and is twenty
eight and one half inches long. [
measured it on my square and am sat
isfied it was at least thirty inches
when it was taken from the vine. for
it has shrunk some in the mail. He
writes that he has a lineal descendant
of Jack and the bean stalk and this
variety has been handed down through
seventeen generations, more or less,
and these beans won't grow for any
body except Irish patriots or Confed-
crate veterans The writer belonged
to Captain Dawson's company in the
Eighth Georgia regiment and was
with us that memorable night when
we crossed the Shenandoah river by
torch light and the short boys had to
be eased over the deep places by put
ting taller soldiers behind them, and
even then the water ran into their
mouths occasionally. My friend was
one of the shorts and says he got
strangled several times on tiptoe.
These bean vines and other vines
have often excited my wonder and
contemplation. Solomon says: There
is a purpose for everything under
heaven" and Addison says: I'm rea-
sons voice all rejoice And SO
would like to know why all the bean
vines, morning glories, madeira and'
cinnamon vines grow and wind toward
the sun, starting on the south side
of the pole and going east. while the
top vine and some others reverse their
course. Everything has its law and
you can't make anything change its
nature. A vine will die if you force it
the wrong way. And yet Raphael
Semmes says in his great book that
south of the equator everything is re-
versed and the bean vines that climb
against the sun up here climb with it
down there. OF course the motion
of the earth ON its axis has something
to do with it, but why is it so? We
don't know much after all. Mrs.
Hemans SAYS: land flowers shall
wither at the north winds breath"
but if she had lived in South America
she would have said ''at the south
winds BREATH for that is the cold
wind below the equator. We are all
inclined to view things from our own
standpoint. OF course it is very nat
ural for us to do so for we live in the
same zone and latitude that Adam and
Eve lived in. westward the course
Of empire takes its way" That's all.
No change in the course of the sun
or moon or stars or climate or tenn
perature. Paradise was on a line with
Gainesville, and it is vet, and the Eu-
pirates river is the Etowah now and
the gold of that land was good and so
is the gold of this.
But | was Illuminating about these
mysteries of nature that surround us
and are so common that we do not no
tice them. Last night our grove was
illuminated by a thousand tirefiies-
more numerous and more brilliant
than ever before. 1t was regular pyro-
technics for an hour. They Tighten
as they rise from the grass and emit
spark of gold and green luster that
is lovely. Some naturalists say it is
phosphorus, that they can illuminate
at will by breathing hydrogen or oXy-
gen into it and that it has not heat.
Ever since Linneus lived this little
innocent bug has been under the fires
of dissection and discussion and no
solution of its wonderful faculty has
vet been agreed upon. | had to catch
a bottle full for the little girls. They
then L turned them out and one of
them was dead with the light still
shining in it's tail. 1t had illuminated
it's own death and kept its lantern
burning without breath of hydrogen
or oxygen. Away down in the tropics
these firehies are an inch long and a
score or two of them will illuminate
a room and a dozen in a bottle gives
light to read by. Travellers tie a dozen
to a strick and travel at night by their
light I would like to import some of
that variety into my grove. In fact |
think we could utilize them in our
street lamps and get more light than
we do now.
The other morning about sunrise
/ was surprised at the number of lit
tie cobwebs that adorned the grass
and weeds around the house. They
were almost touching each other and
glistened in the morning sun like
frost was upon them. Most of them
were about the size of a saucer and
had their tiny cords and stays fasten-
ed securely and in everyone was a
cunning little aperture where the
weaver lived and waited and watched
for his prey. The workmanship of
these little webs was exquisite, arts
tic and perfect-where did the little
creature get its material and who told
it that this was a good morning to set
its trap? The books tell us that it
has within it's little abdomen a tiny
reel that turns as the web Is spun
and that the fiber is so wonderfully
fine it would take ten thousand
strands to make a thread Of sewing
silk. Wendell Phillips delivered lee
ture in Boston and his subject was:
There Is Nothing New Under the
Sum- He declared that 5000 years
ago the Persian ladies' could weave
fabrics as delicate as spiders web
and that once Persian princess who
was going out to a fashionable dance
went into her fathers room to show
him the beautiful garments she had
on. The old king was amazed at her
apparel, or rather at the lack of it,
and said: go back, my daughter; go
back and dress yourself. Your gar
ments do not conceal your nakedness.
She seemed indignant at the rebulSe
and said: Father. L have on seven
different coverings beside my dress.