The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1900-09-15
ARPS EXAMINATIONS.
Friend Sends Bean Like That Jack
the Giant-Kiner Planted.
Nets Him 10 maFvellng at he Myu-
teFIeu Of NatuFe-AFfivai Of Pre-
aervinB seasonal @Eri-
GInE" Huuband.

A veteran friend has sent me one OF
the identical beans that little Jack
planted and that grew up TO the sky.
It came in a letter coiled up ike a lit
tie green snake and / thought at first
it was a snake. 1t is about the size Of
an average wax bean andis 2sH inches
long. / measured it on my square and
am satisfied it was at least 30 inches
when it was taken from the vine, for it
has shrunk some in the mail. BE,
writes that he is a lineal descendant Of
Jack and the bean stalk and this va
riety has been handed down through
II generations, more or less, and these
beans woa't grow for anybody except
Irish patriots or confederate veterans.
The writer belonged to Capt, Dawson's
company in the Eighth Georgia regi-
menA and was with us that memorable
night when we crossed the Shenandoah
river by torchlight and the short boys
had to be eased over the deep places
by putting 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 con-
temptation. Solomon says: There
IS a purpose for everything under
heaven and Addison says: "In rea-
sons voice all rejoice" And so / would
like to know why all the bean vines,
morning glories, madeira and CHINA
mon vines grow and wind toward the
sum-, starting on the south side of the
pole and going east, while the hop 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 reversed 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: "And
flowers shall wither at the north
winds BREATH" but II 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
1t is very natural for us to do so for
we live in the same zone and latitude
that Adam and Eve lived in. "West-
ward the course of empire takes its
way" That's all. No change in the
course Of the sun or moon OF stars
or climate IF temperature. Paradise
was on a line with Gainesville, and
it is yet, and the E~uphrates river is
the Etowah now and the gold Of that
Land was good and so is the gold Of
this.
But I was Illuminating about these
mysteries Of nature that surround us
and are so common that we do not no.
tiee them. Last night our grove was
Illuminated by a thousand freflies-
more numerous and more brilliant than
ever before. It was regular pyrotech-
MICS for an hour. They tighten as they
rise from the grass and emit a spark
Of gold and green luster that is lovely.
Some n~aturalists say it is phosphorus
that they can illuminate at will by
breathing hydrogen or oxygen into it
and that it has no 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 yet been agreed
upon. 1 had to catch a bottle full for
the little girls. They played with them
until bedtime, and then turned them
out, and one Of them was dead, with
the light still shining in its tail It
had illuminated its own deathan kept
its lantern burning without a breath
dpWnip
the tropics these frefies are an inch
long, and a score or two of them will
illuminate a and a dozen in a bot
tie give light to read by. Travellers tie
a dozen to a stick and travel at night by
their light. Iwouldl like to import some
Of that variety into my grove. In fact,
I think we could utilize them in our
street lamps and get more light than
we do now.
The other morning about sunrise I
was surprised at the number of little
dew-covered cobwebs that adorned the
grass and weeds around the house.
They were almost touching each other
and glistened in the morning sun like
a frost was upon them. Most of them
were about the size of a saucer and
had their tiny cords and stays fastened
securely, and in everyone was a cum
ming little aperture where the weaver
lived and waited and watched for his
prey. The workmanship of these little
webs was exquisite, artistic and per
fect-where did the little creature get
it's material and who told it that this
was a good morning to set it's traps?
The books tell us that it has within its
little abdomen a tiny reel that turns
as the web is spun and that the fiber is
so wonderfully fine that it would take
10000 strands to make a thread of sew
ing silk. Wendell Phillips delivered q
lecture in Boston. and his subject was:
"There Is Nothing New Under the
Sun" He declared thaU 5000 years
ago the Persian ladies could weave fab.
RIGS as delicate as a spiders web, an6
/ 49, No. --sa--- - ----