The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-07-19
Uses OF FIREFLIES.
They supply Light to Read BY and TO shoot
By--A Fircfiy Telegraph.

an the tropics" says G. r. O'Reilly, the
naturalist, "the frefiies may be made TO
serve many purposes. For instance, they
supply light to read by.
Zone night when stormbound in the
forest-covered mountains Of Pavia, in
eastern Venezuela, my companions COM
planned of the monotony Of having nothing
to do.
How jolly it would be- he said, If
we only had lamp and some booksT
why I've got 1Don Qui1ote" in the
sack said /, and I'll soon have light
Il jumped from my hammock, caught
freely, and soon, with Don Quixote'
open, was reading aloud in such darkness
that none of us could see the faces of the
others.
Il had only one freely, yet it was quite
sufficient, because l used it properly. I
held the little creature between finger and
thumb, close to the page, and as / passed
it along the lines OF print, word after word
became successfully visible and passed
from my lips as freely as if I had had the
whole page plainly before me, instead of
a little circle of light, illuminating word
after word as it moved steadily along the
paper.
son another occasion I came across
snake in the dark and resolved to catch
him. Accordingly l decided to mark the
spot and return Immediately with lantern
To mark the spot, however, in such dark
ness was difficult.
"Firenies were passing quite near me
was smoking a cigarette, and had some
Give univ in I
the glowing point of the cigarette about
my head with one hand and held my hat
in the other Soon freely sailed near me,
attracted by the light. l knocked it down
with the hat and secured il.
in the same manner | got two others,
tied them all together with the bit Of copper
wire, hung them OH branch over the path
way close by where the snake was, and then
hurried home for a lantern.
when l returned my FREELY beacon
was still there, glowing as brightly as ever
Ny lantern soon revealed a large snake
Just finishing his meal. / captured him
without difficulty. Then, thanking the
flrefies for their services, turned them
loose
Another night, wishing to shoot a large
white owl when it was too dark to see the
sights of the gun, new use for fireflcs
flashed across my mind. Taking two Of
the insects, | killed them, and pulling Off
the luminous part OF each | placed the
phOsphorescent substance on the fore sight
and back sight of the gun barrel.
by this means | brought down the owl
without difficulty, the pale, weak light on
the sights being just sufficient to aim by.
and yet not 80 strong as TO dazzle the eyes.
"A Venezuelan gentleman, whom l met
at Caracas. told me how his life once was
saved by the use of a freely. During a
revolution. being taken prisoner, he was
in kIn fN dor
guard of soldiers. He had learned teleg-
raphy while at school, and his friends re-
membered that fact when every other
plan Of communicating with him had failed.
But they could not imagine how to tee-
graph to him without exciting the sus-
picions OF his guards, until at last they
thought that, by combining large freely
SO that It's light would show steadily among
the trees. a telegrapher might, by alter
natcly hiding and exposing it's light, send
a message to him while he sat smoking in
the window Of his prison.
During the day, when he sat smoking
by the window, they got Il boy TO ride past
on mule, singing verse Of song
ouando cl mundo duerme
Mrad los cncullos
MI CorazUni
THAT is, When every ono ia asleep, look
out at the fire'es, my dear The singer
was boy whom the prisoner knew well,
and he naturally suspected that some hint
was intended for him. He could not I'M
derstand exactly what was meant, but,
nevertheless he watched for the irefies
He saw only one. but that one spoke
a silent language, and he answered II by
alternately hiding and exposing his lighted
cigarette. His escape was planned 40
well that he got away that very night
and lived to tell me the story many years
aftcrward."