216 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 



of prayer doubtless had their faith greatly strengthened 

 by the fact. 



NOT A DIVINE VISITATION. 



There are those, among both the clergy and the laity, who 

 deem a locust visitation an expression of Divine wrath, for 

 the sin and corruption of the people — a chastisement of the 

 Lord. They claim that the " wickedness, fraud, falsehood 

 and corruption " which, as they assert, " abound in every 

 department of society," are at the bottom of it. They 

 consider it impious to attempt to avert the evil. These 

 opinions were boldly proclaimed in 1875 by writers in some 

 of our prominent newspapers. The expression of such 

 opinions is a downright insult to the hard-working, indus- 

 trious and suffering farmers of the Western country, who 

 certainly deserve no more to be thus visited by Divine 

 wrath than the people of other parts of the State and 

 country. Persons who promulgate such views are little 

 removed in intelligence from the poor crack-brained negress 

 whom I. saw in the streets of Warrensburg shouting and 

 imploring the people not to kill a locust, since God Almighty 

 had sent them ; or from the poor deluded Arabs who make 

 no effort to destroy the locusts which they hold in super- 

 stitious reverence. It is not surprising that people are yet 

 found who hold such views ; for no great calamity ever befell 

 a country which was not attributed, by certain fanatics, to 

 Divine wrath; but it is surprising that, in this enlightened 

 day, such persons can find circulation for their vagaries in 

 the columns of some of our widely circulating and influ- 

 ential journals. 



INFLUENCE OF THE WIND IN DETERMINING THE COURSE OF 

 LOCUST SWARMS. 



That excessive multiplication aud hunger are the prin- 

 cipal causes of migration from the native home of the 



