The Republican journal., 1904-05-19
BOY NATURALlSTS.
WHAT THEY ARE DOING IN NORWAY.
MAINE,
From the American Boy for May. ]

q guess you'd yell if milk adder stung
you with his tail,-the way he did me-"
milk adders can't sting with the
tail, can they, Mr.. Howe?' asked little
Phil Richardson, the smallest boy of
the Boys" Natural History Club"
Small as he is, Phil is president of the
club, and none of the twenty four
youngsters knows more than Phil about
specimens"
NO" said Mr.. Howe 'The milk
adder has nothing in his tail with which
to sting That is popular error that
needs correction"
but there is horn in the tail of
mine," said Artie Il will show it to
you if you don't believe it,
oh" said Mr. Howe, 81 saw that
horn the day you caught him. That
is freak instance You know l have
told you about abnormal specimens.
There may have been some injury to
the adder's tail that caused it to harden.
1t is analogous to hard horny places in
the palms of a laborer's hands. We are
always glad to get the freaks, as have
said to you. They help to explain, pos
Sibly how new species develop
Il must have hit my toe hard against
that place in his tail, said -Artle, lit
Tie creSC1allen.
The boys refrained from laughing at
Artie They remembered how many
errors they had themselves committed
since the day when first they became
members of the Natural History Club.
Il made mistake almost as bad as
that" said George sit was about the
crimson ramblers. l thought | saw the
lady bugs eating the leaves. There were
Inv Gllr OnrnI that Wprl
all killed out. and when | saw the lady
bugs on Mr.. Howe's vine ran right off
to tell him how they had eaten ours all
up and now were after his"
when, in fact" said Mr.. Howe, "the
lady bugs saved its life. 1t often hap
pens that benefactors get misunder-
stood 1t was an aphid that ate the
leaves. The lady bugs eat the aphids,
and that was why my rambler was full
of fine blossoms while Georges died."
1--WE didn't know things of this kind
until we became naturalists, did we,
boys?" remarked Artie, rather proudly.
And this was true. In this small vii
lage of twenty-five hundred people,
where | listened to this kind of dialogue
for several days, there are ifty-eight
young scientists. Their leader and
teacher is one of the hitherto unknown
and yet quite remarkable men of the
day. Mr.. George Robley Howe of Nor
way, Maine, an enthusiast in natural
history, and still more an enthusiast in
his study of boys and in his liking for
them, is, in fact, helping these fifty
eight boys to have the best time of their
lives.
In having the best time of their lives
they are also learning so much that
oS oil
they beat his college classes in natural
We're the nine boys to begin with The
nine-boys begin with have been hav-
ing this good time for almost six years.
Ther were just boys, like other boys,
when MI Howe took up the idea that
he might make them good for some
thing. You see, the ordinary country
village boy is aimless. and doesn't really
know how to have good time. He just
plays over a few old dry games, and
then he has nothing to do but play tEem
over again. Perhaps there is a little
skating and cOastlng in the winter and
some Irregular base ball in the summer.
But MI. Howe got tired of seeing so
many boys going to waste, growing up
aimless and vulgar and without any
noble ambitions for the future. He said
to himself, Il believe / can change all
that Now this Mr.. Howe is a most
remarks bile character. He believes that
a village is just as good place as a
city, and that nature and the woods and
fields are in some ways better than
either Yet not boy in the village OF
Norway knew anything of Importance
about the woods and fields and hills and
streams round about them. They could
not tell the names of the birds beyond
the sparrow, the robin and the wood
pecker Perhaps some of them knew
the kingtisher that perched on the old
dam and dived into the mill pond after
his prey. AS for the flowers, they could
and buttercups-notm many more Every
bug was merely a bug, aud they never
had thought how many kinds there
We're or what their names or habits
were. Moths and butterflies We're all
alike to them. The stones We're either
pebbles Tor throwing, or ''isnglass''
which you can see through" And Mr..
Howe said. People tell the boys half
truths enough, and show them shams
enough, but | believe that boys can be
improved in mind and morals by being
taught the great, beautiful truths Of
natures" SO he began.
Never before had any inliabitant of
that little village found out what Won
ders were SO close to them-that they
literally trod on miracles whenever they
left the dust of the village street. MI.
Howe began to show to ''the-nine- boys
to-begin-with'' what wonderful things
belong to their own hills and streams.
Oxford county lies banked against the
White Mountain range, forming the
western border of the State for COLI
siderable distance In the town of
Stoneham there are formations in which
various kinds of gem-stones abound.
The boys hunt for these, and the collec-
ton gathered by Mr. Howe and the boys
is worth good many thousand dollars.
Mount Mica is an outcropping ledge on
a little hilltop in Paris. The stone is
quartz, granite and mica. In the schists
of mica and in the composite grains Of
other stones a wonderful number Of
tourmalines are lodged. This is the
most famous place for tourmalines in
the country. Some of the stones when
cut and finished are large, brilliant and
very valuable.
Then in the little streams that run
through the hills and meadows of the
county Mr. Howe discovered that there
were valuable pearl shells. The collec-
ton that he showed me, taken from
these streams is probably worth five