The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1907-04-23

flying about In caudlelight thei
lives seem TO be snuffed oft il a day
and yet the brevity of the locust'B Liz
does not startle me. for | find that sont
Of the greatest men have been the
shortest lived men.
Soon after Percy Shelley was drown
ed in the bay of Spezia his widow
Mary Shelley wrote these beautiful
words: shelley, my beloved. this year
has new name from any thou know
est. When spring arrives, leaves that
you never saw will shadow the ground
and flowers you never beheld will star
1t, and the grass will be of another
growth. Thy name is added to the list
which makes the earth bold in her age
and proud of what has been" But,
though Percy Shelley climbed to the
highest pinnacle of fame. like John
Keats, and Arthur Henry Hallam, and
Raphael, and Robertson. and AleXan-
der, and hosts of others of the worlds
greatest leaders, he died before middle
life had been reached. You cannot
judge a mans usefulness by the MI
merical list of his earthly days. Some
of the worlds greatest benefactors
have been men who died before the
silver hair was fringing their fore
heads or before their youth had waned
Brevity of Life.
But the inSignificance of the locllst'>
intellect is even more startling than
the brevity of its physical life These
locusts seem to be like the camels
among the beasts and like the turkeys
among the birds They seem to be the
stupidest of all insects. They seem to
have no law of organization. They
seem to have 10 skill i'll hive building.
like the ant They do not have tn"
genius of the bee or the ingenuity of
the beaver building his dam or the fox
or the spider or the swallow. DIR. Hen
nv McCoOk. the great authority on the
ant and the spider tells us that for
hours he has lain down by an ant hive
to study the wonderful intelligence Of
these insects But the locust does not
have the intelligence of an ant Like
the tortoise. which has been known tn
live and to walk for six months after
its brain has been extracted the locust
seems to have but little intelligence.
but this little intelligence used in IL Ger
tain way has made its approach the
terror of the beasts of the fields the
birds of the air and of man in his for
tilted castle.
Now, after we have studied the insig-
nificance Of the locust as an individual
let us try to ascertain wherein lies the
strength Of his power. In the first
place the greatest strength of the To-
Gust lies not in her individual self, but
In her fertility or the numbers of her
descendants. 1t has been mathematic
ally calculated that if the unrestricted
increase of Il common pair of gypsy
moths were allowed by nature to grow
in eight years there would he alive
enough of their caterpilIars to destroy
the entire vegetation of the United
States But even these caterpillars of
the gypsy moth are not so numerous
as those Of the common locust.
Earth Alive With Them.
IL
I these insects visited the Lebanon re
gion in Syria and remained there only
few days. just long enough TO de
post their eggs and then disappear.
In about six months those eggs were
Matched. A~short time afterWard those
small locusts started up the mountain
sides. The whole earth seemed to be
1,1+5
there seemed to be millions and bill
lions of them. They rolled on like the
movements of an augmented river
Then, when the reader realizes that
this multitude Of locusts was but til"
result of one matching and that the
same swarms of locusts not only d"
posted their eggs once. but man
times during year, he can to SOM
extent realize the prolific and formi
dable power of these dreaded pest
Each female locust is supposed to Ia
about eighty eggs at time. Ncafl
all their eggs are fertile. Thus it
possible for female locust to have
thousands and tens of thousands Of
descendants in single year Thif
amazing power of multiplication stag
gers the Imagination, but it is only the
rapidity Of 1t that makes 1t so wonder
full.
The increase from year to year i'll the
worlds human population Is as Won
derful. Man is here exerting his in
fiuence on his generation. What will
be his influence in the next generation
through his children? We do not re
alize the past so clearly looking for
ward as we do looking backward. Yon
had two parents. You had four grand
parents and eight grandparents.
You had sixteen great-great- grandpar
ents and tnirty-two great-great- great
grandparents. And If you trace your
ancestors back to the time of Williams
the Conqueror. or about 900 years, YOU
had 100000 different ancestors. And
Of all your ancestors there is not one
whose influence is not being felt t
greater or less extent in your life to
day. Let me illustrate this fact IN