The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1917-04-22
By JOHN o'DONNELL.

Most of the trouble In the world comes
through things getting into the wrong
place. Thus, for instance the grain of
dust that would be so excellent in the
corn field Is all wrong when 1t gets into
your eye. There are many interesting
examples Of grief due to the transferencel
OF some object from the place where 1t
was innocent to another where it is a
power for destruction.
; The story of the Australian rabbit is
familiar An English settler wanted to
make his little cottage seem homelike.
| He was always thinking Of the dear old
| things back home in England. So he
sent for few rabbits to play about his
| dooryard in the way that they had done
| at home. The results of this innocently
sentimental desire have been simply as
tonishing
UP to the end of 1916 the colony of New
South Wales had spent $27, 900 900 in fight
\ Ing rabbits The colony had 5000 miles
| of rabbit fences. West Australia had a
| rabbit fence that extended clear across
the continent These fences are close
meshed and prevent the well-meaning
but destructive quadrupeds from eat
ting the continent alive.
Rabbits Overrun Country.
From the original family OF rabbits i'm
ported by the homesick Englishman the
|
| In years OF drought they not only ate all
the wild vegetation, but also the crops.
AS Australia had an all the year round
| climate there was no long cold weather
to interfere with their multiplication The
Australians tried to arrange poison traps
| for them, so that they would get the poi
! son. whereas the sheep could not. The
, trap worked all right in that direction,
| but did not protect the valuable birds
which were destroyed So numerous did
the rabbits become that at one water
hole they wore paths two feet deep in
the fields through which they came to
the water At another water hole it is
said that 100000 of them were poisoned
| in one drought season.
The Australians used to organize rabbit
drives and slaughter them by the ton.
Later the fences were put up. Now the
ubiquitous rabbit is being made to serve
useful purpose, his flesh being canned
or sent back to England in cold storage.
The hides are also used. But there never
was better illustration Of the damage
that may follow the transfer OF some in
nocent animal or plant from one climate
to another.
The TImid Lantana.
Perhaps you have heard the story of
the timid lantana plant and the homesick
| missionary? Well, where missionaries |
tie blooms that have to be treasured in |
pots. This particular missionary to Ha-
wall In the earlier days thought TO solace |
himself by having a pot of the dear frag- !
ile lantana sent to him. He tended 1t
carefully and planted it in his tropical
garden.
One day, few weeks after the trans |
planting, the lantana jumped the fence |
and ran away. As a result thousands of
acres OF land in the Hawaiian group were |
ruined. The little lantana that had been |
so tender plant back home. here in the |
tropic isles developed into a big. husky |
, tree. No one appreciated the danger at
first. But the lantana grew and grew. |
Finally it had covered acre after acre |
with a scrub forest so matted and inter
twined that progress through II was so
nearly impossible that the traveller could |
make better Roadway by scrambing |
along over the tree tops on the inter-
woven branches. To cut down an acre
OF lantana was too expensive to be at
tempted. To burn the growth was i'm
possible, because of the heavy rainfall.
As result good ground that had borne
crops was lost. And all because one
missionary had brought a pot of lantana
from its home country where it was
harmless ornament.
In the Samoan group the sensitive plant {
has played a somewhat similar part. The
y.
was not a pest. II grew here and there
in modest patches, and served
source of innocent amusement to cane !
carrying gentlemen who acquired unto
themselves a sort of Goliath-like pleasure
of strength through seeing an entire
group of plants wither away at one sweep
of the stick. But the sensitive plant,
when introduced into tropical Samoa with
an importation OF cattle, proved far from
inOffensiVe. 1t spread out from the har-
Dor town in every direction. 1t covered
the open places along the trails with A
dense three-foot growth. The natives so
bare-legged and the sensitive plant Is
equipped with a set OF wirelike claws.
The poor Samoan from a life of smooth
skinned peace, has been transferred into
a hell of torment in which his neither
limbs are constantly besCratched and
abraded by the brambles.
Clothing the Heather.
The human pantaloon and frock coat
has played an equally diabolical part I'm
the life Of the Pacific. In the early days
of missionary work the London Mission
| folk sought to ciothe the heather. If we
can only cover their nakedness, said these
devout. but bOne-headed pioneers in the
| field of moral uplift. all will be well. So
with one hand they besought the wild
| Kanakas of Tahiti and Rarotonga to en-
I ter the fold, while with the other they
penned appeals to the good deacons a,
| home in England to hurry out bales of
! discarded woolens.
! Soon the islanders were covered as to
! their interior with psalms and as to-
their exterior with black broadcloth. Ev-
! cry one was delighted-at least for a time
Gods work has prospered greatly"
wrote the good brothers. Every one is
converted to the faith. Everything would
be joyous were it not for the mysterious
! fact that many of our converts have
! been seized of a mysterious sickness and
are dying on every hand" The good
warm clothes that had been such a bless
| ing in bleak England were a curse when
| imported into the warm wet islands. At
| home they saved life; in their new habi-
1 tat they destroyed it,
TransplantinE Measles.
! The islands have suffered varIously
! from the implantation of numerous things
that were well enough in their own
| places, but became curses in different
I