Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1901-09-05
AN ARMY OF TOADS.
Their March Through Provincetown
Astonished the Natives,

A horde of tiny toads made it's ap-
pearance in Provincetown a few DAYS
ago, causing old residents to say:
Never see anything like that afore."
The people residing on Winthrop
street, back of Bradford, were the first
to discover the presence of the swarm
ing infant batrachia which at thattime
limited their wanderings to the low w.
lying pasture lands just north and
west of the streets named. But on
Saturday last the toad army went
forth from its encampment to spy out
the land, and that they found it to
their liking is evident from the fact
that they spent Sunday in sight-see-
ing far afield.
Great bands stro1led down Win
throp street to its place of junction
with Commercial. At this point Cen
tenary Methodist Episcopal church
raises its spire. Bands also moved
easterly along Bradford street to Cud-
worth and Prince streets, which led
to st. Peters church, and people liv-
ing along the streets named gazed won
derstruck upon the moving throng.
These two divisions of the vast toad
army were composed of the church
goers of their kind evidently. Judging
from the direction taken They made
no effort to enter either of the edifices
mentioned, but were content to suuatin
the closely trimmed grass and pine
shrlll treble while the thunder of the
organs swelled and died.
But by far the greater portion of the
invading hosts sought the water front
by way of Central street and Atlantic
avenues where passersby were COM
PEELED to tread carefully to avoid
stepping upon the mites.
These passed Crocker's dry goods
store in the afternoon in thousands,
turning south from the main street
into the big grass field bordering the
beach at that point, and here they
played leap-frog or sat gazing OMEN
eyed upon the shore surf. which thew
now Deheld for the first time appar-
emily.
Mrs. James G. Roberts stated that
on Saturday last the ground about her
house was fairly covered with the
sWarm1ng creatures Several CT the
men who marveled over the appear-
ance of the creatures said that the
term thousands conveyed no idea of
the numbers which showed at various
parts of the town. These men say
there were millions, not thousands.
of the little amphibia in sight.
At one time the host of toads which
had gathered upon the square stone
that serves as step outside the Corea
house, junction of Bradford and Court
streets, furnished laughable picture
to the several who witnessed it. So
compactly were they self-arranged up-
on this wide stone, one could not find
clear space for the end of a finger, the
surface of the stone being practically
hidden beneath the clustered forms.
The passing of the multitudes at
some pionts was likened by beholders
to the passage Of stream Of dark
hued water. Of uniform size, scarcely
larger than blue-bottle fly, the new
corners literally covered the earth
at the rear of the western part of the
town for day or two, but since their
migration shoreward they have unac-
countably disappeared, few, compare
lively of the vast throng showing them
selves today.
In their passage through some of the
dooryards yesterday the grass trem-
bled to the push of the multudinous
forms as if by passing wind.
Some contend that the creatures
were bred in the pastureland spoken
of, others think they were rained down,
and one man says that when he lived
in Truro the cutters of his fathers
house became clogged with similar
sized toads during the occurrence Of a
heavy rainfall and that it was neces-
sary to clear the spouts of the thous-
ands to admit of the entrance Of the
water to the cistern beiow.-New Bed
ford Standard.