THE STORY OF AN ENTOMOLOGIST 



that had been done by a borer in the stalks o£ the sugar cane, 

 but there were no funds that could be used for investigation, 

 so the Englishman's proposal to pay my expenses was gladly 

 accepted, and we started south together. 



Some years afterwards the Englishman published a book about 

 his travels around the world, and I looked up a copy in one of 

 the libraries, reading with great interest the part that related to 

 the time when I was with him. It was truthful in the main, but 

 the facts were varied from time to time, probably in order to 

 make it more interesting. For example, the passenger train 

 ahead of us going through the Carolinas was purposely de- 

 railed, plunder being the probable object. When we arrived at 

 the spot in the middle of the night we were held for a long 

 time, and finally were put out of our train, and had to walk 

 until we had passed the derailed train, mounting an emergency 

 car on the far side to be carried to the nearest town. The car, 

 in which we were placed on the emergency train was a freight car, 

 lighted by a lantern, and pardy filled with the more important 

 luggage from the wrecked train. The conductor and the engineer 

 of that train were binding pistol wounds they had received after 

 the derailing. Altogether it was rather exciting. The book account 

 simply made all this happen to our own train— not to the one 

 ahead of us. 



Another time, when we were going through the flat land 

 between Mobile and New Orleans, we saw that the marshes 

 were on fire some miles away. As described in the book, this 

 incident was illustrated by a full page in vivid color, showing 

 great flames and dense smoke, with the legend, "The Pampas 

 on Fire Near the Gulf of Mexico," and the text stated that the 

 Americans in the train, with their accustomed gambling propen- 

 sity, were laying wagers on whether we should get through alive. 



But enough about the book. It can doubtless be found without 



[41] 



