ANSONIA 



26S 



ANT 



of life. Though he was born and educated in 

 Italy, his early literary works were French in 

 spirit, and strongly showed the influence of 

 Maupassant, Paul Bourget and Tolstoy. They 

 were, to a large extent, psychological studies, 

 pessimistic and occasionally frank beyond the 

 point of propriety. His later work, especially 

 .a volume of lyrics, Laudi, has won an enormous 

 popularity, and seems a more creditable contri- 

 bution to Italian literature. 



Of his novels the most important are The 

 Child of Pleasure, The Intruder, The Triumph 

 of Death, Virgins of the Rocks and The Flame 

 of Life. His plays are mostly lacking in action, 

 and have not been very successful on the stage ; 

 the best of them are Franccsca da Rimini, The 

 Daughter of Jorio, The Martyrdom qf Saint 

 Sebastian, a mystery play, and The Dead City, 

 written for Sarah Bernhardt. 



ANSONIA, CONN., is in New Haven -County, 

 in the southwestern part of the state. It is 



twolvo miles west of New Haven, on the east 

 bunk of the Naugatuck River, and on the 

 Berkshire and Naugatuck divisions of the New 

 York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad. The 

 city has electric interurban service. The pop- 

 ulation in 1910 was 15,152; in 1914 it had 

 increased to 16,204. 



Ansonia was founded in 1840 by Anson Green 

 Phelps, and named in his honor. A public 

 library, built as a memorial to his memory by 

 his granddaughter, Caroline Phelps Stokes; 

 the city hall; opera house; Y. M. C. A. build- 

 ing, and a concrete bridge constructed at a cost 

 of $175,000, are the interesting features of the 

 town. Ansonia was at first a part of the town- 

 ship of Derby ; it was incorporated as a separate 

 township in 1889 and became a city in 1893. 



The important manufactured products of the 

 city are heavy machinery, brass and copper 

 goods, woolen goods, clocks, electrical appli- 

 ances, rubber, sugar, etc. 



NT. "Go to the ant, thou slug- 

 gard," wrote Solomon thousands of years ago; 

 "consider her ways and be wise; which having 

 no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat 

 in the summer and gathereth her food in the 

 harvest." And Shakespeare put into the mouth 

 of his delightful fool in King Lear the words, 

 "We'll set thee to school to an ant, to teach 

 thee there's no labouring i' the winter." 

 There is a significance about these references, 

 made many centuries apart, both before the 

 days of systematic nature study. They show 

 that the ant has always attracted attention; 

 not by reason of beauty, like the birds and 

 butterflies, nor because, like the bee, it fur- 

 nishes man with a delicious food; but because 

 its activities suggest in so many ways those 

 of human beings. In general it is the higher 

 animals in which man is most interested those 

 which are structurally not unlike himself; but 

 the ant is an exception to this rule because 

 it shares with man one dominant trait it is 

 a strongly social being. 



Rank in Insect World. Like the bees, with 

 which they have many characteristics in com- 



mon, the ants belong to the great order of 

 membrane-wings, or Hymenoptera, and by 

 some students of insect life they are classed 

 at the very top. This does not mean that they 

 are more intelligent or more capable than 

 all other insects. The social bees, for instance, 

 display fully as much ingenuity and build far 

 more elaborate homes for themselves; but next 

 to man ants are the most adaptable form of 

 animal life in the world. Like man, they have 

 found their way everywhere. No region is too 

 hot or too cold, too dry or too moist to meet 

 their demands. Originally flesh-eaters, many 

 species have so far adapted themselves to 

 conditions that they can live and thrive on 

 plant food; and just because of this they can 

 maintain large colonies. For in all ranks of 

 animal life the flesh-eaters are inclined to be 

 solitary, partly because their preying instinct 

 makes them savage, but chiefly because animal 

 food is nowhere certain enough and plentiful 

 enough to furnish unlimited supplies. 



Nor is this the only way in which the ants 

 show their adaptability. They can endure 

 astonishingly wide temperature changes with- 



