The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1913-11-10

INTEREST Among Famous meH-Fo OF
Sake of Science He Endured Many
Miseries-Wil Have a Monument.
Paris.-Jean Henri Fabre has been
called the Homer of the insect world.
For fifty years he has studied insects
and their ways more closely and con-
tinuously perhaps than any other man.
| Add to this the fact that he Is a poet
as well as a man of science, that he
writes with peculiar charm, and 1t will
be understood why his books about In
| sects have aroused the enthusiasm of
| such men as Maurice Maeterlinck and
Frederic Mistral.
They refer to him as the discoverer
of a new world. He has beer COM
| pared to La Fontaine, whose fables
give evidence of his love for beasts.
| Their writings show the same fresh
| ness, simplicity and charm. Darwin
was struck by the patience and inge-
| nuity exhibited by NJ. Fabre in pene-
| trating the secrets of insects, and in
| the "Origin of Species" he refers to
| him as an inimitable observer.
An English translation of Nj. Fabre's
| book 1.-The Life of a Spider" has lately
| been published. He was born in the
| south Of France, was the son of poor
parents, and his whole life has been
one of uninterrupted labor.
AS a lad he taught himself to read at
night by the light of a blazing pine
knot. In school ne paid his tuition
fees by serving as a choir boy. He
won a scholarship at the normal school
at Avignon and became a teacher,
finally rising to the grade of professor.
1t was while he was attached to the
lycee at Avignon that he came across
the chronological works of Leon Du-
four, and thereafter the course OF his
life was changed. He saw how In
complete was the state of the science
OF entomology, and what he saw
opened to him a magnificent field OF
study. Thereafter as soon as he was
able he gave up teaching, devoted him
self to the study of insects and en-
dured many miseries for the sake OF
science.
He went to live In a cottage with
rose tinted walls and green blinds at
the little village of Serignan, on the
road from Orange to valreas. For
years the neighboring peasants knew
little Of aim. Then one day they
learned that q great scholar was dwell
ing among them, and % he is the
glory of the village.
He has used incredible patience and
ingenuity, guided by sympathy, In
studying insects. Observation and
study In the laboratory did not tell
him what he wanted to know. 1t wa
necessary for him to watch the free
insects In their natural environment.
What he saw he described sympa-
t~hetically. POLITICALLY, wildly. His
writings interest the general reader as
much as the e~ntomologist. He de-
scribed with equal care the industry
of the bee and the wickedness of the
preying mantis, that fierce insect
which devours Its wives and charms
It's victims with what the entomolo-
gists call its spectral pose.
Maeterlinck wrote OF him: HE de-
voted to the task Of surprising their
little secrets, which are the counter
part OF the greatest mysteries, fifty
years Of an existence solitary, mis-
understood; poor, often approaching
want, but illumined each day by the
joy which is brought by a truth, which
Is the human Joy above all others. Lit
tie truths. you will say, those which
are offered to US by the ways OF a
spider or a cricket. There are no
little truths. There exists but one, OF
which the mirror to our uncertain eyes
seems broken. but each fragment Of 1t,
whether 1t reflects the evolution OF a
star or the fight Of a bee, contains
the supreme law"
NJ. Fabre Is now ninety. Honors
have come to him. His fame Is wide
spread. He is no longer able to pur-
his studies. He sits day after day
smoking his pipe In the dining room
Of his cottage.
Not long ago Frederic Mistral, the
famous ~octogenarian poet Of Provence,
made an appeal In his behalf on the
ground that he was In a lamentable
condition of ~undeserved poverty. This
M. Fabre denied. The French govern
ment granted the aged entomologist a
literary pension of $500 a year. Later
still the Academy of Sciences Of France
awarded him a prize Of the value Of
1000 francs. A minister OF state has
paid an oficial visit to him, and Il
IL proposed to erect a statue In bis