The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1922-10-26
ABOUT ANTS, ELEPHANTS AND
By RIcHARD LLoYD JONES

biologists, who, in simpler language, are the
bug-ologists, after micrOscOpically observing the
habits and conduct Of ants for years, bring US the in
~tereSting information that these busy little workers
in the humber world are BY their own voluntary
action the most moral of all living creatures.
The ant, they tell US, is so intelligent that We are
justified in trying to describe its existence by a kind
Of allegorical comparison with human life.
BUSY as are these minute little creatures, their
females are scrupulously clean. Several times each
day they better their appearance with combs and
brushes. The mothers are the only ones that are
allowed TO eat all they want. All others, by their
established law, must abstain from over eating and
drinking.
Soldier ants protect both the young and those
who care for the young. The mother ant is treated
with all the Difference of an empress.
The ants limit their sleep to just that which is
their need of rest and they destroy the drone and all
those who would attempt TO over-indulge in leisure
or luxury.
They have architects and engineers. They build
houses and bridges to conform with definite plans.
They have their agriculture and horticulture and
have been observed to domesticate as many as 5S4
different kinds of creatures.
Wonderful is the story Of the ant. Some of our
scientists who are better biologists than sociologists
quote the old Hebrew saving of thousands of years
ago, Go 10 the ant, thou ~sluggard, consider her
way" and suggest that there is much in the ant the
man might well try to emulate.
Cher scientists tell us to consider the elephant.
The Hindoo tells US that he gets good work from
that giant creature only so long as he is good to it.
Should he abuse or offend it, he would lose the ele-
plants willingness to work and he might lose his
life by mourning the elephants ire. To appease the
elephant, the Hindoo always feeds it before he him
self partakes Of food.
That gentlenesSs and generosity do much to gain
good work, is the moral lesson the scientist hands to
us as a result Of these observations.
But who wants TO be either an elephant or an
ant? Who would want to emulate their ways, in
teresting and perhaps intellectual as they appear
to be?
The elephant has none Of the generosity for
which the scientific observer pleads. The elephant
says, Feed me first or am likely to get mad and
kick the d~aylights out of you" There is nothing
in that sort Of spirit worth emulating.
The ant is good to its own but il wars on every
other creature that il cannot subdue and use. There
is nothing so very big and magnanimous about that.
What is more, outside of the grotesque trick ele-
plants in the circus ring, no scientist has ever call
ed upon us to see or hear an animal symphony, nor
have they shown US an animal-made picture or
gracefully formed statue. Has any one ever yet
seen an elephant pause in rapture before a gor-
geous sunset?
What eye at the microscope has ever seen an
ant lay down its work upon its hill to bark to the
song Of the lark?
Whatever are mans imperfections he is not only
the research student, the truth seeker, but what is
finer, he is the great appreciation. To be able to
appreciate the wonders of the world-that in itself
is living the higher life.