The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-06-03
AFTER THIRTY YEARS.
0p,r,Sg sOJ ERSHFNTs LON0
UIRIH ran 4 STCRfT
m, rroNiem Wss nav ~ tiahe tsrhs
,,sshes Fat PLASTER " PssSs ti0Ha
Nir fhelg qaaae RsgtWHe Vade ~
me nue ttaa Whs AHew me answer.

,1.ss 'ho r~nple WIN arrival here from
ts,,rI lhs o,her dsy was M Vim haa
~.us ft ihs Vtinsty Just ~ enloy himself,
sfsr ntylna amassrd 4 c~ofHpEteace ~ fuis
n,us fne chrrrfui calling n official eoch.
t.t.p siIrt ~ the British Upvcfnmert.
y. |.,Nly few t-ts1hs ara war that the
,,t ,rI rtlitat " The cochFoach "a q British
rr, u,r Npst ~ the buildings de-
,atr.l ,r that PURPOSE ace old, al N them
49, If v and rvery ohe N them 10 alive
rNI r. iahes
Inar. ,rr professional RAJ oatohera and
t,.p alters IN all puntf ies, hut tho
mc,n.. lhev adura are Usually trada
.e.,.t. AMI probably NJ inch follow
,lo .,mo rrncsss. fhs only cundltion
r,.r ,Iu,h they will work IL that they
.rt. N,,o nv, building entirely to them.
.o.a t,um n certain hour ~ night until n
r.rlr huur IN The morning and that no
or sU,lI ho allowed ~ spy upon them,
w. ho time II Ia necVsaary 10 reaufue
hu.oo.a the professional has carefully
for.lyed all traces ~ his work and Ia ready
H. 1ctart. What he has done during the
vo.,rlo-a hours ~ the night or what ina
icral- be- has worked with are no ones
business Every roach in the place Ia dead
ami that - enough. The charge for such q
night work in England IL So,
Il mist not he supposed that the British
Govern nent paid over this amount with
regularity and frequency without making
.oro effort to save that TEN Of expense. On
the cont rary it tried in every a to find
out The roach killers secret, but for along
time wit hout SUCCESS
Tho only evidence II had TO 20 upon was
the dead reaches. When these were swept
out Il was remarked hat the few found after
the expert had sone were as hard as iron,
in fact they might have been intended for
brc-a-hrac. Their weight, also. seemed
to be- out 81 all proportion to their size
and number.
one day some one with an investigating
turn of mind dissected one of those reaches,
and came to the conclusion that it was not a
roach at all, there being nothing under his
knife proper to a roach but the skin and
legs. The interior was apparently q block
OF stone.
Several specimens Of the genus Cucayaeha
d~tunctus having been submitted TO chemical
analysis, it vas determined beyond question
that the interior Of the insect was composed
entirely Of plaster Of paris and glucose,
and it seemed that the glucose must have
originally been sugar. which had been
swallowed in conjunction with the plaster
d paris, just as human beings swallow
whiskey in water.
Armed with this discovery, the services
Of the professional seemed no longer neces-
sary, and plaster Of paris mixed with sugar
was plentifully sprinkled about a certain
post office which had beer selected az an
experimental station or proving ground.
So far from the stuff's killing of the reaches
in that particlar post office, it was observed
that after the first nights feast there were
probably double the number of c~ockroaches
on hand, and that within a week every roach
In town had apparently left it's usual haunts
for up it's quarters at the post office.
Upon asking for scientific advice in the
matter. the authorities we're calmly in
formed that the increase was nothing re-
markable, and that all the reaches on hand
had probably been bred upon the premises,
well known TO naturalists that a single pair
Of healthy reaches, II well nourished and
preserved from interference and accident,
would increase to II 100000 reaches within
a year.
There being already about a million reaches
on the proving grounds, the authorities
concluded that the building would not hold
the CAS-, 900. 900, 00O, 900 which would he due
within a month, so they sent for the pro-
%fessional and gave up another e5. He shut
himself up in the building about 0 o'clock
that night and he departed with the dawn,
and there was not a single living roach left
IN the place.
Careful chemical analysis of some Of the
c%arcases showed not a trace of any vege-
table or mineral poison: nothing but the
same old stone interiors, made UP Of plaster
Of paris and sugar.
It was observed that when the post office
authorities put down the mixture them
selves the reaches evidently liked 1t, but
particle Of sugar and leave every grain
OF plaster. When the place was swept out
in the morning and the mixture which had
been spread the night before was examined
It was found to be absolutely. free from
sugar and could have been sold for caloined
gypsum, commercially pure. What might
have been the condition OF the mixture
used by the professionally he spread any
thing, no one knew, because he left nothing
behind him.
After some years Of delay and red tape,
during which the professional gathered in
his s25 with regularity and frequency, a
postal employee after thinking the matter
over concluded that inasmuch as plaster
death it must have been introduced to the
Golckroach's anatomy by the professional.
The secret evidently was not what to use,
but how to make the insect swallow it.
10 make IL swallow the sugar was easy.
Why was it that the reaches would swallow
the plaster Of paris laid out for them by the
professional and would not touch that
offered them by the Government
Mature deliberation led him to the con-
clusion that the reason was that the cock
roach could distinguish between plaster Of
, paris and the sugar, and that the profess
sional must possess some secret drugs
which he mixed with the other ingredients
in such a manner as to blind the cock
' roach's fine sense of discrimination In such
matters.
This led to a long series OF experiments
during which the number Of cockroaches
In English post offices increased until it
reached the maximum recorded since the
days of Rowland Hill. So successful were
the British post Office authorities in breed
ing reaches that the services Of the profess
sional had to be called in twice as often as
they were before the post Office Q into
the business.
This could not last. Somewhere, some
time surely, in the dark byways Of official
life, there must be found q man fit
TO grapple with any problem, no matter how
Immense. This much desired individual
happened along about q year ago. hence
the retirement OF the professional to the
uuiIStnrhaI endowment - hta xral Ia-