OF TRUE BUGS IN 

 GENERAL 



THE reader will doubtless have observed ere this that 

 in this book there is no formal schedule of classification 

 of the insects described, and the least possible use of the 

 scientific names for them, except occasionally for the 

 purpose of showing off. Yet 1 would not have you think 

 that I do not believe in that sort of thing. Entomology 

 does not introduce terminology and classificatory schemes 

 merely to complicate the game. It differs from chess and 

 pinochle in that respect as in many others. Classification 

 by orders of insects that have a certain structural resem- 

 blance is a great help, and these names that look to be 

 so unnecessarily long are really brief descriptions of the 

 creatures to which they are attached. Very few insects 

 have any common names, and these have been bestowed 

 in a higgledy-piggledy way and differ in different parts 

 of the country. For example, the stink-bug or harlequin 

 cabbage-bug in the South is called the " Abe Lincoln 

 bug." 



Almost the first thing I can remember is a big stack of 

 boxes in the public square before the court-house. At 

 the least calculation it must have been 600 feet high, and 

 I can recall the picture of men scaling that dizzy height 

 to pour kerosene on the wooden tumulus. It seems to 

 me tar was put on, too. It was there some days, and 

 then one night my father took me downtown to see it 

 burn. Its roaring flames licked the dark sky overhead 



73 



