The Savannah morning news., 1904-06-19
4 TRI1UTE 70 THE TOAD.


81 had rather be a toad" said the
jealous Othello. 'and live upon the va
| pour of a dungeon, than keep a corner
in the thing I love for others uses
In another place Shakespeare has one
Of his characters say: sweet are the
uses of adversely, which like the toad,
ugly and venomous. wears yet pre-
cious jewel in his head" Shakespeare
must have been intensely prejudiced
| against the toad since he grossly IL
| beled the little creature. according 20
| the lights of modern science. In this,
| however. he was not unlike other writ
ers of his times and earlier. The Pc
! culiar nocturnal habits of the toad and
! It's unloyely appearance gained for 1t
! bad reputation. which it did not de-
| serve. Toads were associated with sor-
Gerry and witchcraft and incantauons.
| They were supposed to have poisonous
breath, to spit poison, to cause warts
on the hands of those who dared handle
| them. to cause bloody milk in COWS if
| killed by accident or design. The
breast bone of a toad is a famous in
gredient in the "conjure bag" of the
colored witch doctor. Yet the toad's
| influences were believed to be not all
| evil 1t was good luck to have a toad
occupy the cellar Of a new house. To
| discover a toad on the doorsill was a
! good omen. The stories that have been
told of the toads longevity and it's
ability to exist without food or mois-
ture are numerous. It is alleged toads
| have been found in the middle of blocks
of stone, deeply embedded in masonry
or in wooden recesses where they must
have remained for dozens of years.
Most of these stories rest upon no bet
ter foundation than the supposition
that the toad is poisonous and of evil
intent merely because he is lacking in
personal attra ctiveness.
The Department of Agriculture has
issued an interesting brochure on the
toad that should have the effect of rails
ing him in the estimation of public
opinion. The toad is not a creature of
evil mind and dsreputable deeds. He
does not live on the foul vapors of dun
geons. He does not vent his spleen
against mankind in the shape of warts.
He does not poison young children with
his breath. He does not consort with
evil spirits and "conjure" the cattle
whose master steps on and breaks his
| back. He is timid in the presence of
his superiors, but he is not a sneak.
He is modest and retiring, because he
cannot stand the glare of the sun, not
because his deeds are wicked and he
desires to hide his head in shame. Nor
is the toad unfriendly, though he is not
given to demonstrations of companion
ship. The writer hereof has a hundred
times stroked toads on the back with
his hand, or tickled them gently on the
underside with a straw, and seen them
stretch out their legs, shut their eyes
/ and doze with every evidence of perfect
happiness and contentment. He has
even tanned toads, so that they would
come when whistled for to be fed with
flies.
The departments brochure asserts,
and proves by authenticated data, that
the toad, so far from being a disrepu-
table member of the animal family, is
really a good, useful and benevolent
little fellow. He is especially the friend
Of the farmer and gardener. His food
consists almost wholly of insects that
are harmful to vegetation, and he has a
tremendous appetite. In twenty-four
hours he will eat four times the ca
pacity of his stomach. Being a sports
man and a hunter, the toad will not
pay attention to dead or motionless
food. His prey must be alive and act
i've, and the more active it is the better
the toad is pleased. No matter how
rapidly the fly may be moving, if it
comes within the range of the queer
little back-action tongue of the toad,
the shot is invariably accurate and the
fly disappears within. The department
finds that 81 per cent. of the toad's food
is made up of insects that are injurious
to vegetation, 20 per cent. of insects
that are neutral and only IL per cent.
of insects that may be classed as bene-
fetal. Cutworns are a titbit to the
toad, and two dozen of them day are
about the number that one toad will
destroy in a garden. Ants are another
morsel of which the toad is very fond.
Maybe when those Guatemalan ants
have cleaned the boil weevils out of
Texas, we shall have to send all of our
toads to Texas to clean out the ants.