The Aristocrat of the Kitchen. 105 



making the most radical changes in their business 

 methods. Almost all other insects have been compelled 

 to adopt strange shifts, each in its lifetime. They come 

 out of the egg as grubs and water-wigglers. They try 

 that for a while and then go into a trance to think over 

 what they will do next. \\ hen they emerge it is a kind 

 of last act of Uncle Tom's Cabin grand transformation 

 scene, with wings and all kinds of make-up. You 

 wouldn't know them. To the cockroach this has always 

 seemed something too much like mountebanking, too 

 sensational, too flash, if you please. ' Once a cock- 

 roach, always a cockroach," is its motto and it sticks to 

 it. Thouefh it changes its clothes seven times in its 



o o 



progress from the egg to the adult and, if it be a he cock- 

 roach, puts on wings instead of growing a mustache, it 

 never takes an alias, never appears to be anything but 

 what it is, a cockroach. It possesses that virtue that we 

 delight to honor in our deceased fellow-man. Yes, 

 yes, poor Joshua," we say with a sigh and the tremolo 

 stop pulled out. " You always knew how to take Josh. 

 He was always the same." It is a great thing to be 

 steady, reliable, and unprogressive. 



It has its drawbacks, I admit. The brighter the light, 

 the blacker the shadow it casts. It is generally con- 

 ceded that as insects cockroaches do not rank very high. 

 They class with the locusts, grasshoppers, and crickets, 

 a stupid lot. It was, perhaps, unfortunate for them that 

 they succeeded so soon. To jump right into prosperity 

 seems to a young man to be the best thing imaginable, 

 but the chances of that young man growing and broaden- 

 ing after he has found out what will please are very slen- 

 der indeed. After a man has caught the car he no 

 longer runs and shouts and waves his hand, putting forth 

 great energy and attracting the attention of everybody 



