THE STORY OF AN ENTOMOLOGIST 



diners, nearly all Americans, and the French atmosphere was 

 largely non-existent. However, I took a seat, and remarked 

 cheerfully to the waiter, "II y a beaucoup de monde ici ce soir." 



He scratched his head and said in Hibernian English, "This 

 is a French place all right, but I don't understand the lingo." 



Possibly this anecdote illustrates well the change that had 

 come to New Orleans. 



Now followed a long period of about thirteen years under 

 Professor Riley. He seemed gradually to rely upon me more 

 and more, and although we had a number of other assistants, 

 he soon made me the principal one. His health was not good, 

 and he travelled a great deal, leaving me in charge of the office 

 at Washington during his many and frequently long absences. 

 Gradually he allowed me to publish shorter articles under my 

 own signature, and in 1889 he was able to begin the publication 

 of a periodical journal known as Insect Life, intended at first 

 to be issued monthly, but which became more or less irregular. 

 However six volumes were published under our joint editorship. 

 During the years of Professor Riley's incumbency of the office 

 of Chief of the Service (1881 to 1894) the work was interesting 

 enough. Admirable annual reports and many bulletins were pub- 

 lished, and, in fact, it was a period of marked progress. The 

 establishment of the journal just referred to, the founding of the 

 Association of Economic Entomologists, the establishment of 

 State Experiment Stations, under the so-called Hatch Act, and 

 the consequent impetus to the teaching of entomology in the 

 state colleges and universities, all contributed largely to this 

 result. 



The most dramatic episode of this period was the extraordinary 

 success of the introduction from Australia of a little beetle of the 

 so-called lady-bird family that utterly destroyed the fluted scale 



[47] 



