368 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



p; 



). 



(ORRESPONDENCE 



^ ^'S^ AND Information 



Dan Beard's First Interest in Nature, 



[In "Literary Notices" of this number 

 mention is made of Dan Beard's recent 

 book, "The American Boys' Book of Bugs, 

 Butterflies and Beetles." Reading that book 

 suggested writing to the author and in- 

 quiring how he first became interested in 

 insects. He tells us in this letter that he 

 began as a baby watching flies on the win- 

 dowpane. — Ed.] 



Flushing, Long Island. 

 To the Editor : 



The little things of the world play 

 an important part back in the dawn of 

 life, that part of one's life of which we 

 are only conscious because of certain 

 well remembered experience The ris- 

 ing sun of life seems to strike and illu- 

 minate the minute things in place of 

 the big things and these illuminated in- 

 cidents are the ones we remember in 

 after years. My memory tells me of 

 spending much time watching the flies 

 on the windowpane ; I thought they 

 were pigeons, because to my baby 

 mind and sight imtrained to perspec- 

 tive, the pigeons outside, flying among 

 the housetops, appeared to be the same 

 size as the flies on the windowpane — 

 both were alive and both excited my 

 baby interest to that degree that I can 

 still recollect them, although the time 

 previous and considerable space fol- 

 lowing are blank pages. 



Then again I can remember sitting 

 on the front steps of a house on Long- 

 worth Street, Cincinnati ; it was the 

 fourth of July and I was experimenting 

 with lightning bugs and wondering 

 why I could not set oflf a firecracker by 

 the light in their tails. I must have 

 been three years old or probably less. 

 Both these incidents excited my inter- 

 est in the study of insect life. 



The next occasion which has left its 

 impress upon my memory was in 

 Painesville. Ohio, where I attended the 

 little red brick schoolhouse in the grove 

 and where I was flogged for breaking 

 my slate over a colored boy's head. 

 The Western Reserve, it must be borne 



in mind, was a section of the country 

 settled by Abolitionists and the colored 

 children went to school with the white 

 children, a thing to which I was un- 

 accustomed, so when they seated a col- 

 ored boy at the desk with me, I thought 

 it was an intentional and gratuitous 

 insult and smashed my slate over the 



DAN P.EARD. 



poor lad's head to the great delight of 

 the scholars and the horror of the 

 teacher. A lath was taken from the 

 wall where the plaster was broken off 

 and with that the teacher flogged me. 

 I went home and told my mother all 

 about it ; to my amazement she 

 laughed. She understood the situation, 

 I did not ; she patted me on the head, 

 gave me some cookies and said noth- 

 ing more. The next day I played 

 hookey from school and spent the time 

 in the cornfield watching the ants. In- 

 deed I became so absorbed in my ant 

 study that I neglected to watch the 

 time and come home when school was 

 out ; in fact if I remember aright I was 

 late for dinner, as the luidday meal was 

 then called. 



