The Oklahoma City times. [volume] (Oklahoma City, Okla.) 1908-1984, 1914-12-28
STORIES OF STATESMEN

No bug, or insect, or worm IL so
lOwly or humble that Or. l.. q. How
ard cannot call It by Its first name.
He gives bug or II mere insect II
single glance and knows its family
history, hereditary traits and minor
Vices The fact is that DR.. Howard
knows practically all the things about
the average bug or moth or worm that
there are to know He is the govern
ments chief entomologist, or, to use
lay term, bugologist. For more than
fifty years he has been studying about
all manner Of creeping things, and
toray, while house flies and boil wee
wills and winged ants and June bugs
and LOT Of things like that are q
good deal ot q nuisance, yet they are
nothing like the pest they would be II
1t We're not for DR. Howard. Except
for Howard aud the Bureau " En-.
tomology the bOh weeyil alone would
he Just as great pest as the man
who buttOnhOles you and persists In
telling the latest Ford story.
Before proceeding further with this
learned scientific discussion one nat
urally pauses to inquire what sort Of
man IL he who devOtes nearly his
whole life 10 hugs. Bugs and insects
have 10 he handled and understood OF
course, but many Of ny In casting
about for life work say to the
world Get somebody else to study
your bugs. Unless II would he dane
ing the modern dance steps, there is
probably nothing that most Of us
would care less about doing than TO
start In and spend fifty years learn
ing the main facts abept our leading
insects.
Yet DR. Howard has elected TO do
that and he ~ not queer person
either He Is not M all like the pro.
fessor one sees In farce comedies with
specs, golf pants, and butterfly net,
To the contrary DIR. Howard looks
rather chunky and prosperous and
lust Hike regular folks He has small,
ac,entificlOoking. general purpose net
of brown whiskers, which might lead
one TO take him for consulting pill
doctor or surgeon: hut one would he
more likely 10 plcy him for captain
of industry-the head Of railroad
or bank
When Howard was youngster
aged seven, IN Ithaca, n. Y, his
mother took him ON trip TO a point
on Long Island II he had hot gone
away from Ithaca that summer,
somebody else would probably he our
chief lnsector today. While visiting
on Long Island Howard fell In with a
gang Of playmates who amused them
selves hunting cOcoons and watching
them hatch butterflies. lie grew so
intensely Interested In that sort Of
thing that when he got back home he
went into the cocoon business on his
own account His parents bought him
books containing life size portraits Of
heetles and plnchlng bugs and he read
them while other boys were busy
with their Nick carter or geography.
Yet he was not queer boy. He play.
ed baseball and other sports with the
boys who did not know about bugs
as he did, and he was the hest player
Of the bunch. Today he IL good
golf player, doesn't lie about his
score, aud at uight reads the most
friviious kind ~ detective stories. lie
II thoroughly human and likeable.
All yes, hut we were telling how
he happened To go In for bugs rs a
life work All through the public
schools, the teachers made him write
essays about his favorite insects aud
he was regarded AZ youthful auth.
ority on the ways Of the Insects that
buzxed about his home locality,
When II came time to enter college
Towards mother widow, told him
Il was time he was quitting his but.
terfly chasing and thinking about
something serious. She persuaded
him to study engineering. No How.
ard entered Cornell University and set
out to become mechanical engineer
He liked the engineering course fair.
! ly well, all except the mathematics
All his life he had been n rather poor
mathematician and figures annoyed
him. He could do ordinary addition
and subtraction. hut when n came Ia
higher algebra aud trigonometry he
wishei he were somewhere else
' Without saying anything 10 his