The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1910-08-13
THE LOCUST MYSTERY

From Yucatan Mexico, comes fine r.,...
the southern part Of the weird peninsula +. h.
devastated by an unprecedented swarm .. Is
From the dawn of history these my-,erl.,. ~
tations of winged plaques have fallen ;r,au.
tently on all parts of the habitabe earth nm.
any man account for their coming or their ~.
Fifty years ago Nebraska, Utah and E..
were invaded by the winged hosts, and when =.
disappeared the land was desolu-ian in A..
regions of our continent the army worm ura..l.,
the locust. drought followed, and fin. Iarl..
erywhere was a desolation, reminding .ua of I,r..
prophetic description of the ruin of Palestine.
That which the palmerworm hath left. Tine rcr,.
hath eaten; and that which the locust hath l.a
the bruchus hath eaten; and that which the B.,,
chus hath left the mildew hath desrr.oyf"
On many occasions locusts were introduced b.
the Almighty to chastise sinful peoples A swarm,
of locusts was one of the plaques If Egypt. uBs,
they shut out the suns light darkeuci the cart,
and devoured every green herb and the fruit of q.
cry tree which the hail had spared Gen. xl5J
The most complete description of this insec,
and of its destructive march over a country. men.
toned in the sacred writings, is found ia Joel
$40. This is, perhaps, one of the most strik7,
and animated descriptions to be found in III,
whole compass of prophecy The conjecture d,
weaving of the passage is extremely curious; and
the double destruction anticipated BY the locust,
and the enemies coming after them, is painted with
the most expressive force, and described with the
most terrible accuracy.
We can see the destroying hosts moving before
i
olation spreading
Shaw in his 'Travels" records that in 1649 To-
Gusts destroyed all the vegetation Of the island Of
Teneriffe. They came across the sea from the
coast of Barbary and settling upon the island de-
voured all vegetation. The other Canary islands
were also visited and the inhabitants were forced
to bury their provisions
Burckhardt, in his Travels in Syria writes:
"At Naeme l saw for the first time swarm Of
locusts; they so completely covered the ground thai.
my horse killed numbers Of them at every step"
Even England was alarmed by the appearance Of
locusts in 174S. The hosts happily persisted be-
fore propagating Locusts have frequently come
from Africa, across the sea- and settled down on
Italy and Spain. In the year 591 an immense army
ing destroyed nearly a million of men and animals
by pestilence brought by their decompos-
ton.
The great and fertile province of Manitoba
Canada, would today be settled entirely by French
Canadians but for ocusts. In Bishop Taches day.
1871 locusts were at times such dreaded pest
in the Canadian Northwest that the prelate wrote
from st. Bonifaee, Manitoba, to the bishops o.
Quebec, discouraging immigration to the territory
now one of the most fertile provinces in the Do
minion of Canada.
It is remarkable that Solomon says prov
XXX: "The locusts have no king; while the 10
Gusts of the Apocalypse have king, and dread
full king, too-Abaddon the destroyer.
Dr. G. W. Stiles, head of the Rockefeller COM
mission for the study of the hookworm, recently