1870-] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
347 
20Y1 * mH'M' (BDIiTJMHS, 
ttiflereut Ways of Eating-. 
A distinguished physician of our acquaintance who 
has occasion to examine the chests of many people, says 
that he gets a great deal of amusement in observing the 
different waya in which people put on a shirt. We find 
no little amusement in .noticing the different ways in 
which people eat. Those of us who have business 
■■downtown" in the city, mostly eat at a restaurant 
where dozens and sometimes hundreds are taking their 
noon-day meal. It is curious to see the different ways in 
which people will go about the same operation. Some 
ll gobble up : ' their food as if on a wagefto see how soon 
they can dispose of it, and others pick at it as if looking 
for something disagreeable in it— and they find it too, 
sometimes, at restaurants. Some act as if they were the 
only pei-sons at the table, and reach directly across one's 
THE BOY WHO EATS WITH HIS ELBOWS. 
face for salt or pepper, while others will be careful not 
to intrude upon their neighbors in any manner. You can 
always pick ont the gentlemen by the way in which they 
regard the comfort of others. It is bad enough to see 
one wipe his knife on his lips and then put it into the 
butter, but the greatest annoj'ance is the man who " eats 
with his elbows." "We mean those chaps who keep their 
elbows working like a fiddler. It is a real discomfort to 
sit next to one of these, as the frequeHt nudges and 
knocks that one gets from the industrious elbow quite 
destroys the enjoyment of a meal. It is not in restau- 
rants only that we have noticed .this uncouth perform- 
ance, but in hotels and private families. It is not likely 
that those who anno}' others in this way are conscious of 
doing so, but it is the exercise of a bad habit formed 
when young. We would not like to think that any of our 
young friends eat in this way, bit if they find themselves 
doing so, let them try to cut the food and carry it to the 
mouth without spreading out the elbows; they will find 
It quite as easy, and they will not, in this respect at least, 
annoy others at the table. 
The Doctor's Talks. 
503IETHINO ABOUT TXSECTS. 
" What is this. Uncle ?" said Arthur, as he brought me 
something for inspection. " I found it down on the to- 
mato viues; it is a great green worm, carrying its eggs 
upon its back."— Many older people have very strange 
notions about insects, because they do not know the 
changes they go through, aud the order in which, these 
occur. Most of you have s en the Tomato-worm as it is 
called, though it is in some places known as Tobacco- 
worm, and in others the Potato-worm, according to the 
plant upon which it is found. Let us run through its 
history aud it will serve for that of other insects, though 
TOMATO-WORM AXD COCOONS. 
the story would have to be somewhat modified to meet 
| all cases. In the first place there is the egg. Secondly, 
| when the egg hatches there is produced a larva, or cater- 
pillar. A little fellow at first, but a great feeder, and 
Boon grows famously. After changing it* skin Hev.-ral 
times, it reaches its full size, 06 large as one's finger, and 
three inches long. Having done a great deal of mischief 
in eating tho plants, it is ready to rest; so it goes down 
into the ground for its winter's sleep. Winn it is fairly 
abed, it would never be taken for the same green worm. 
It is much reduced In size, ita skin la hard and brown, 
aud it appears to be lifeless when turned np, as.itoften 
is, by the plow or spade. This is the third Btage of the 
insect's life, and when in this it is called a />«po, or chrys' 
alts. Curious changes are going on in this brown pupa; 
for in spring it bursts open its case and outcomes a large 
moth— which some, who do not know the difference, call 
a butterfly. Its great, gray wings have a spread of five 
incites, and it has a very long trunk with which it can 
suck the juices from flowers. This is the fourth or per- 
fect state of the insect, and is called the imago. This 
lays eggs, from which proceed another lot of caterpillars, 
and so the changes are repeated. The larva of all in- 
sects are not caterpillars, they do not all form the 
pupa in the ground, fur many spin cocoons in which 
the change takes place; nor are all the perfect inseete 
— as }'ou well know— moths, but they all go through 
changes similar to this. First the ag^ then the 
larva, after this the pupa, and finally the imago, or perfect 
insect. As the perfect insect alone lays eggs, the cater- 
pillar which Arthur brought could not have been "car- 
rying Us eggs upon its back, 11 as he thought. Yet the 
mistake was a very natural one, as you will see by look- 
ing at the drawing I had made of the caterpillar. There 
they were, little white egg-shaped things, just as thick as 
they could stand. What were they ? In order to explain 
it to Arthnr I had to make the little talk about insects I 
have given you. All insects do not live on plants ; some 
live upon the larger animals, and many make their home 
in their larva state inside the bodies of other insects / This 
Tomato-worm for example, which we consider as au 
enemy to us, on account of the injury it does our plants, 
has its own insect enemies. A minute fly-like insect 
with a sharp probe pushed a great many of its eggs into 
the caterpillar's body when that was quite young; these 
eggs hatched there, and the lame from them grew as the 
Tomato-worm grew. They did not kill it outright as you 
might suppose they would have done, but left it enough 
life to enable it to supply them with food. When these 
little larva) were ready to go into the pupa state they 
made their way through the skin of the Tomato-worm, 
spun their little cocoons, in which they became pupas, and 
finally came out as perfect insects. Animals which live 
upon other animals are called parasites ; and the things 
which Arthur thought were the cges of the Tomato-worm 
were really the cocoons of one of its parasites. Should 
you come across a Tomato-worm in the condition I have 
shown in the engraving, yon can put it under a tumbler 
and yon will be very likely to catch some of the perfect 
little insects as they come out of the cocoons. "But what 
becomes of the Tomato-worm ?" It dies after it has 
nourished its unnatural brood. It has not strength 
enough left to change into a perfect insect. In this case 
we must look upon the parasites as beneficial insects. It 
is very gratifying to know that we have such aid in keep- 
ing the troublesome insects from multiplying more rap- 
idly than they do. When Arthur is old enough I intend 
that he shall study insects, at least enough to learn to 
distinguish between the beneficial and the injurious ones. 
Perhaps some of the boys and girls who read this would 
like to do the same. This will do for the first lessoD. — 
" Where shall we find the second ? " — Well, that is a diffi- 
culty. It is a great pity that there is no book about in- 
sects suitable for boys and girls. I wish some entomolo- 
gist would do for the " bugs " what Doct. Gray has done 
for the plants in his " How Plants Grow." 
An Old City. 
BY "CARLET0N." 
It may not be the oldest city in the world, but there are 
not many older places than Benares. It is pronounced 
in three sylables with the accent on the second— Ben-ar- 
ea. It is in India on the bank of the Ganges. The peo- 
ple who live there think that there is no river in the 
world like the Ganges. Its waters, they say, are purer 
than those of any other stream— so pure that by bathing 
in it they can wash off. not only the dirt from their bod- 
ies, but all sins from their souls. They think that Ben- 
ares is a good city, that men who live and die there will be 
a great deal better off here and hereafter, than those who 
live and die anywhere else. It is so ancient that no one 
knows when it was founded, but I have no doubt it was 
a large place when Abraham was living, 8,900 years ago. 
It i j a wonderful place. When we read about Greece, 
we seem to go back to the threshold of history ; but Ben- 
ares had its gorgeous temples and palaces centuries be- 
fore the Parthenon, that most beautiful temple of the 
Athenians, was built. When David was a boy tending; 
sheep in the pastures around Bethlehem, before he went 
out to fight the great giant Goliath, boys and girls 
were playing in the streets of Benares ss they arc play- 
ing there to-day; and things change so slowly there that 
the manners and customs of the present time are pretty 
much as they wore two or oven three thousand years ago. 
The city is located on the east bank of the river. Stand- 
ing on the western bank you behold a magnificent sight 
Tho river is as wide and as deep as the Ohio, and sweeps 
pasl the town with a steady current The city extends 
along the bank a distance of five miles. Moored to tho 
shore, anchored In the stream, or floating slowly past, 
are hundreds of boats — the queerest craft imaginable— 
with clumsy hulls, cumbersome rudders, large, square 
sails, carved stems aud sterns, with bungling cabooses 
on the decks. Many of the boats are loaded with hay, 
straw, or bundles of bamboo, aud as you see them from 
a distance you think that some haystacks from up the 
river must be drifting down with the tide. 
Leading up from the water are flights of stone steps 
which are called gh-aats by the -Hindoos. Above them 
are temples and palaces, with roofs, turrets, and mina* 
rets, some of them covered with gold— pure gold ! Think 
of hundreds of minarets and spires g:eamipg in the gnu* 
shine— of flags and banners waving above the towers, 
and a great crowd of people with elephants and white 
bulls, in the streets and on the stone steps, or in the 
river ! Monkeys are hopping here and there on the roofs 
of the houses, and chattering in the trees; and there aro 
kites that cry " caw-caie" and a bird that keeps crying— 
" It is coming ! It is coming ! " 
Tou sec tame elephants bathing in the river ; great, un- 
wieldy fellows with ears as big as a blacksmith's leather 
apron— a long trunk, and a long tail. You think of what 
the Irishman sail the first time he ever saw an elephant — 
" Fath he's a tail at both ends V You see a boy on tho 
back of each animal with au iron spike in bis hand. 
When he wants the creature to do any thing, he gives a 
thump on his skull, and utters a cry which the clepkant 
understands just as the horse understands your whoa ! 
He knows at once by the inflection of the voice whether 
there is an exclamation or interrogation point after the 
whoa, and gees or haws accordingly. The elephants like 
to get into the water and they would stay there all day if 
their keepers would let them. The flies cannot bite them 
when they are in swimming. Sometimes they have fine 
frolics with their keepers. They sink down until you 
can see only the tips of their trunks, and then the boys 
have to stand up to keep their heads out of the water. 
Sometimes the elephants playfully shake them off into 
the stream. The beys do not mind it much for they are 
all good swimmers, and are in no danger of being 
drowned. If they were, the elephants would pick them 
up as tenderly as a mother does her child, and put them 
safely on their backs again. The elephants are sagacious 
animals, and very affectionate. They are fond of chil- 
dren and like to tend babies! "Tend babies?'*'— Yes. 
The keeper's wife when she wants her baby looked after 
will bandit over to the great, clumsy animal, and he will 
watch it as carefully as the mother herself. If the little 
thing undertakes to creep away he coils his trunk around 
it, lifts it back, and keeps it between his feet. If it cries, 
he is in great distress. How nice it must be to have an 
elephant in the family for a nurse ! If they are well used, 
they become very fond of their keepers. They always 
remember a kindness, and never forget an injury. 
(Concluded on. next page.) 
No. 389. WuslraUd i;.t>us,— a very true statement 
