Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1901-02-09
THEY GOT RID OF LoCUSTs.
Day of Prayer was Followed by Sc.
we're Frost,


"Did you ever hear how the locpSts
were destroyed in Minnesota, and how
an English colony in that state was saved
from absolute poverty?' asked Edward
Barber, the veteran real estate man and
well-known Englishman, the other day.
One of the coolest days in the excep-
tionally cold winter of 1875" said Mr..
Barber, when he had been induced to
unreei the narrative, while | was sit
ting in the chamber of commerce here,
Archie McEadyen, the veteran do0rkcep-
er, came to me and said that Il gentle
man on the outside wished to SEE me. |
went out into the hall and saw a fine-ap-
pearing man, enveloped in a great ulster.
with fur cap ON his head-a person
with the general appearance of a man of
business, II not of wealth. He said he
had been recommended to call on me and
would like 10 have business talk. |
invited him over to my office, and there
he presented a half-dozen letters from
prominent people in New York, Canada
and England. He then informed me
that, as the accredited agent of the Min
nesOta Southern railroad, | think il was,
he was DESTROYS of forming a combina-
ton by which he could secure some Eng
fish colonies along the line of road. Ii
brief he made me Il proposition. by
which, if | would accept, l was to have
large interest in the company's lands,
providing | would 90 to England, adver-
tise the lands and the advantages of this
country, especially of the Northwest. and
get my former countrymen to come over.
Il said to him: L have seen number
of Englishmen during the past few years
who were on their way to settle in Min
neSota where are they! He replied
that it was true that small colony had
already settled on his lands, and i'm
mediately asked why in the world he did
not select a representative among them
to return TO England and advertise MS
new Eldorado. And this was the reason
he gave me for not desiring any OF MS
first settlers to go back for that purpose;
The fact that since they had located
there and gone into the raising of vege-
tables, etc, particularly army beans, the
pesky locusts had come every year ana
destroyed everything they had started to
raise. AS a result, they-the c0ionsJs'
not the locusts-were about starved 10
DEATH Taking in the situation, de-
clined his flattering offer upon the s7ount
that if | went TO England and got a iuI
of my former countrymen, on my say ~,
to settle in a hotbed Of locuStS, Woutu
not dare to return to this country, as tEg
first of my victims who met me Wo0!'
certainly shoot me.
THE affable gentleman went away
and ! learned the following year nov
they got rid of the locusts. lie hau ar
Sured me, by the way, Indt liie We, '"7
was SO cold that winter that everybody
in the ocust-infested section felt certain
that the pests would be frozen oal
and that. nothing would ever no
heard of them again. However. early ID
April of the following year they appear"
in greater quantities than ever. and ne
the grasshoppers in Nebraska, they talf!
obscured the sun. An unusuaily-Waf4
condition of the weather that month
seemed to warm every last ore OF ne
eggs and young locusts into life, ana (H'
poor people were terror-stricken. II Wa
finally decided to appoint day OF prayer
in which it was suggested that every nT r,I
pray for the removal of the pests me
day of supplication was set; the prayers
were made, and on the following day
sudden and very severe frost came upon
the country. up there. after which i, was
joyously discovered that every mother
son of a locust had been frozen L"
death.
II afterward learned that my gents
manly caller went ahead with his '.-
scheme: got thousands to come over Irglh
England and Scotland and locate tRtiG
and that he retired immensely wealth!
as n result of his labor"