The Locusts: their Organ of Sound 



potatoes shall be made to yield torrents of 

 alcohol capable of turning us into a nation 

 of sots, the resources of industry know no 

 limits. But to procure by artificial means a 

 single mouthful of really nourishing matter is 

 a very different business. Never has any such 

 product simmered in our retorts. The fu- 

 ture, beyond a doubt, will do no better. Or- 

 ganized matter, the only true food, escapes 

 the formulae of the laboratory. Its chemist 

 is life. 



We shall do well therefore to preserve 

 agriculture and our herds. Let us leave our 

 nourishment to be prepared by the patient 

 work of plants and animals, let us mistrust 

 the brutal factory and keep our confidence 

 for more delicate methods and, in particu- 

 lar, for the Locust's stomach, which assists 

 in the making of the Christmas Turkey. 

 That stomach has culinary receipts which the 

 chemist's retort will always envy without 

 succeeding in imitating them. 



This picker-up of nutritive trifles, des- 

 tined to support a crowd of paupers, pos- 

 sesses musical powers wherewith to express 

 his joys. Consider a Locust at rest, bliss- 

 fully digesting his meal and enjoying the 

 sunshine. With sharp strokes of the bow, 

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