Page
THE HONGKONG DAILY PRESS, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4TH, ⠀⠀
1023.
SUICIDE MANIA.
"OUR" POOR
COLLECTION
DAY"
* BELOVED LITTLE INSECTS". I. half-an-hour or so, the larval mark
COLONEL DAVY ON THE FAIRY.aplits along the back and the complete DISCOVERY ON THE HILLSIDE AT
LAND OF FABRE."
AUTHOR AND NATURALIST.
I Colonel C. W. Davy had elected to Give a lecture "on the military lands of Hongkong a question on which he is an acknowledged authority-instead of on The Fairyland of Fabre," he would probably have got as large an audience as the professor who, last week, did not lecture on Tutankakmen. That there were so many present as in fact there were at the Helena May Institute, Inst evening, may be taken-not so much as an indiention of familiarity with the subject
as a tribute to the gallant and learned -Colonel's personality and a feeling of certainty that whatever he had to say "would be worth hearing.
insect emerges. Two or three more hours
of the cigale (to give it its French name)
0
THE WATERWORKS. of exposure to sun nul 'nir are necessary before it is ready to begin its brief life There were two cases of suicide record. and song, and then it flies away. Fabreed by the police on Sunday and both thus picturesquely sums up the life-story were from Shamsuipo district
Near the Kowloon Waterworks, Sorg Wynne found the decomposed body of an Four years of hard labour under-akaown Chinese man. A piece of robe ground and a month of feasting in the was tied round the man's neck and a sun such is the life of the Cigale. Do not let us reproach the adult insect with little distance away, was another part of his triumphant delirium. For four the rope tied to a tres but detached from years, in the darkness, he has won the other part. Presumably it was a case dirty parchment overalls for four years he has mined the soil with his talons, of suicide. In the same polies district,
suddenly clad in the finest raiment, and
ST. VINCENT DE PAUL SOCIETY'S BALE OF ROSES.
As an opening to its annual effort to raise funds to carry on its charitable work during the coming year the Society of St. Vincent de Paul had its annual Rose Day yesterday. Over 100 ladies posted themselves at all points of vantage:
Hongkong and Kowloon early in the morning, and judging by the numbers of
peuple the streets who were decorated before noon, when the sale ended, few,
and now the mud-stained sapper is on the ground floor of No 1. New Streets residents arrived at their offes without provided with wings that' rival the Chinese spinster named Tang Tam Kishaving invested in a red or white rose.
bird's; moreover he is drunken with (21) was found hanging from the door heat and flooded with light, the suprente way. No reason is given as to why the terrestrial joy."
giel should take her lifg.
AN EXDESERVED REPUTATION FOR SAMITITY. Colonel Davy next considered the peny For many in the audience, it is to being mantis, "an insect which both tradis feared, had to group themselves with the **Lenightal beings "ro whom Col. Davy referred in opening: the people who have not already found their way into the enchanted land which the genius of Fabre has revealed to its." There was, for example, the pious gentleman who sup posed he was going to hear a lecture qu hyzanology: also the individual who thought to prepare his mind by reading what the Encyclopaedia Britannien bad to say about Fabre," and who was misled into raaking copious notes of the life story and writings of the wrong Fabre, a novelist said by the 'Ene." Brit." to be the French prototype of Thomas'
Hardy,
tion and science Kave conspired to endue ¦! with a reputation for sanctity which is wholly undeserved. Fahre thus explains how it came to receive so pious' a label :---
CHINESE TEACHER COMMITS
SUICIDE IN HOSPITAL.,
STRANGE AFFAIR AT THE GOVERNMENT CIVIL HOSPITALIT
An Assistant master At College, named The Fick Son, committed Queen's suicide at the Government Civil Hospital on Sunday, whilst there ns. n. patient suffering from induenza.
The general organisation was in the hands of Chevr. 3. M. Alves, Prisident of the Society, assisted by Meors, F. H. Dillon and F. H. Barnes, Mrs. Butter held was responsible for all selling arranges. ments on the Hongkong and Madimo. Albuquerque e Castro in Kowloon. There were replenishing depots at the Hongkong
Mesis. J. M. Alves and Co.'s cffices, and," Hotel, the King Edward Hotel and
in Kowloon, at the Star Ferry Wharf. Miss L. Loureiro was in charge of the replenishing depot at the Hongkong Hotel. Mr Silva-Netto at the King Edward Hotel and Mrs. 3, F. Osarind at the Star Ferry Wharf.
The worker in the fields has seen, ou the sunburned herbage of the mea dows, an insect of commanding appent ance, drawn up in majestic attitude. He has seen its fore-limbs, its so to speak,, raised towards the sky in
1 appears that the patient was safer. n gesture of invocation. This wasg from a mild attack of fever at the enough: popular imagination has done time and in a fit of despondeuer took up the rest; so that since the period of a table knife and stashed his throat. Ho classical antiquity the bushes have was given every possible attention by the heen peopled with priestesses emitting medical authorities, but he died several "Soon after non the soilers began to oracles, and, nuns in prayer. Good hours later. At the time of the tragedy bring in their tits to Jesers, J. M. Alves people, how very far hatray your child the attendnut had just placed the like simplicity bas led you? These atti deceased's nea) on the table and had left and Co. offices, where a number of tudes of prayer conceal the must atro the room. He was inter attracted by ambroffs, kindly loaned by the Hongkong cious habits these supplicating arms slight naise and on going into the room and Shanghai Bank, were kept buy for
over two hours. are lethal weapons; these fingers tell found Tye lying in a pool of blood.
Har Cheri Alves had no rosaries hat help to exterminate the
very thoughtfully, provided light refresh- unfortunate passer-by. If it only had mikicient strength, its bloodthirsty" ap
ments for the ladies. petites and its horrible perfection of concealment would make it the terror of the countryside."
However, it turned out that, thanks to the lectures which Mr. R. W. Barney, of Hongkong University, has given from time to time on natural history, most of those present had already had "a glimpse of the wonders of insect life of which The lecturer mentioned that the osmine, -Colonel Davy quoted Darwin as saying or solitary bees, lay their eggs in com- that Jean Henri Fabre was an incompartments of varying size, from the larger of which the males are hatched. As a parable observer." Fabre, said Colonel result of protracted experiments, in the
DETERMINATION OF SEX.
"Most of us," continued Colonel Davy, accept the luminance of the glow-worm as part of the ordinary phenomena of nature, much as we do the light of the stars, yet from the scientific point of view it is still an unsolved problem, another mystery of nature. One thing is clear, the insect has the power to control the light, to turn it on or off at will Another general conclusion reached by Fabre was
The total amount in hand early yester day evening was 3,305.20 and there were still a number of boxes to be returned.
Among those who assisted were:-Mes dames Earner, Murray, Sorby, Miller, Sherry, Danenberg, J. Graca. Ozorio, Cashman, Murphy, Grant, L, J. Scott, Chubb, Pierce, Grossman, Kramer, F. W. James. The Misses Eileen Ashlets, E. A Leonard, B. Barros, Cissy
long and laborious lite to the study of the hec were devised by Fabre, he con- tion of some substance produced by the mund," Ena Danenberg Miller, Davy, devoted the greater part of his course of which conditions unfamiliar to that the luminance is due to the oxidisalbo. Katie Tse, M. Tre. A Jorge.
his beloved little friends of the insect world. (Some of those present also de voted quite a considerable portion of their time to the study of the insect world between 1914 and 1919, but "beloved little friends was hardly the language
used. But that's neither here nor :there," as Shakespeare hath it.)
bee (also the wasp) must know the sex cluded that the female, of this species of of the egg which she is going to lay, and so is able to secure that males and
Beyond that he confesses his C.
ignorance. insect. HINTS FOR HOUSEWIVES FROM ENTOMOLOGY. Colonel Davy mentioned that Fabre's discoveries were of more than purely bearing on domestic problems. Fabre scientific interest: sotho had a practical investigated the habits of bluebottles and
B. Xavier.
females ench have the differing condi- tions they require. Fabre concluded that she must be able More than that, to choose the sex of each egg. He could not explain it; the more he observed and other flies which consign their..eggs | Barton Phelips. Violet: Canell: O'Keefe experimented the more clearly he saw rising out of the black mists of possibility an enormous hote of interrogation.
A REMARKABLE INVASION.
A BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE. Faire, was born in a little village in the south of France in the year 18 so, in a small way, the assembly (Colonel Davy remarked) might regard themselves
One night. Fabre's house was most as celebrating the first centenary of his unexpectedly invaded by a host of the birth. He secais early to have shown
rare Great Fedcock or Emperor Moth signs of superior abilities coupled with & One morning a female moth of this species thirat for knowledge. Gaining a bursary emerged from her cocoon in his labora at Avignon he entered the scholastic pro. tory. Without any particular intention, fession and in early manhood found his he imprisoned her under a wire gauze true vocation as a naturalist. The suc- cover. About nine that evening his small cessful publication of a number of textson, in the willest excitement, called to hooks on elementary science and natural his father to come quickly the room, he history at last set him free from hum cried, was full of butterflies as big as drum toil, giving him the means of escape birds. This is how Fabre describes the to the fields where he realised the dream
secne which greeted them: of his life. Fabre thus comments on his #freedom:
"For forty years I have struggled.
against the sordid miseries of life. The wish is realised. It is a little late, my pretty insects! I greatly fear that the peach is offered to me when I am beginning to have no teeth to eat it with.".
"It is pleasant to refect," commented -the lecturer," that the teeth were spared. notwithstanding, for another 30 or 40 years to enjoy the luscious fruits of study and observation, during which `time ap- peared those wonderful Souvenirs En- tomologiques on which Fabre's fame is securely based.
A SKILFUL PEX,
Fabre's methods did not escape eri- ticism from the old-fashioned school of naturalists. Here is an example of the
pleasant, whimsical fashion in which he delivers his counter-attack
Come here, one and all of you
Rani. Joyce
Aida Alves, M. Jorge H. Jorge i
Joyce and Dorothy Holyoak, Peck, Hamp Luz, Mimi Alves, Cissy Alves 4. Barnes, den Ross, Joan Ward, Julia Gardner, Ita May Dillon, E. Guttuerez, Olive Javier, Nellie Cubbay, Elvira Rozario, Rita Xavier, Ning Ribeiro, Angela
Maud Dillon, Owen deceased animal matter and thereby Hughes, purge the earth of death's impurities. He Doris Dillon, Mille and Kimmie Barretto, ascertained that the bluebottle always Matie Hibeiro, A: Alamada e Castro, Elsa lays her eggs in the slit of the beak or Alves, Olga Roza. Elsa Silva, Ceveira e in the eye between the eye and the eye Castro, Doris Dillon, A. Dillon, Sm ball-places which would give the grub
Simmons Cissie Xavier, Cyntia Alm Fahre found the Pupils of the French Convent, C easy access to the tissue. that, if he merely wrapped the head of Hyndman: The Mastery Cashman. Far a dead bird in paper, the flies would not ner. Messrs. Au Lan Pong. Wing Hung lay their eggs in the Lody at all. If the Fung, Joseph Tong, Jak Yuk Chow lady was completely protected by any Tseung Chung Kwan Piu, Luen, T. F. a paper bag, the result was not a putrid Kong, Ho Kwa Ngan, Tong. corpse but a dried inoffensive mamny, The pupils of the French Conycat did- This was only another illustration of very well, collecting 520.50. The three infalliblë maternal instinct among the highest collections wete: Tin No. 00 (Mrs. insects. It was not reason, but instinet, F. W. James), 8196.70; Tin No. 95 (Miss which taught the binebottle that if she Katie Tse), $103.05 Tin No. 97 (Misses laid her eggs on the outsile on the paper Smith and Simmons), $159.60. envelope, the feeble grubs, when hatched.! would be quite unable to penetrate it and would perish miserably, though sepan ated only by a thin sheet of paper from their natural larder. The careful house wife would lay the lesson to heart. The lot in the larder or the game sent by post could be completely protected from putre faction by the simple device of wrap bing it up in an old newspaper. abre proved his experiments that the ordi- dinary meat safe is a spare and a delu sion. The flies increly dropped their eggs through the meshes, and the maggots in For eight successive nights the invasion. a few days would convert the succulent THE continued, and then the female died. juint into a recking ass of corruption. During this time Fabre made a number By similar means clothes could be pro- i of "experiments to try and solve the tected from the ravages of moths, but mysters" a to what sense informed the the newspaper must be really impervious Krent butterfly of the whereabouts of ita with the edges folded double and well mate. It could not be sight, that was pinned.
Were the loug, feathery quite evident.
"With a soft fiic-fine the great night- moths were flying round the wire-gauze cover, alighting, taking flight, retürn- ing, mounting to the ceiling, re-descend- ing. My study had become a cave of a necromancer, the darkness alive with the creatures of the night It was a memorable night-the night of the Great Peacock. Come from all points of the compass, warned I know not how, here were forty lovers eager to do homage to the maiden princess that morning born in the sacred precincts of my study."
INSTINCT AND REASON.
antennae susceptible to some mysterious The actions of insects seemed to imply radiation or emanation which human a marvellous degree of knowledge. That scnses are incapable of perceiving which instinct told the insect igas mar
loaning several
The Society desires to thank the ladies who assisted in the sale and who all worked so very enthusiastically during the whole forenoon. Thanks are also due to Mr. Ho Cheuk and the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank for shroffs; the Hongkong and King Edward Hotels and the Star Ferry Company, for providing depots, and the Asiatic Petro- leum Company for providing a launch to convey sellers to ships in the harbour.
DEPARTURE OF THE KING'S REGIMENT.
AN ENTHUSIASTIC SEND OFF Large numbers of Hongkong folk wit nessed, with regret, the departure of the King's Regiment yesterday afternoon on the troopship. Derbyshire. The embarka tiun was completed early in the after- noon and shortly before 4 o'clock the you the sting-bearers, and you the wing Fabre's experiments to decide this point vellously like that which reason told the gangway was withdrawn to shore and eased armour-clads, take up my defence | were inconclusive. He tried to mislead
reverse two Naval tugs began to tow the vessel and bear witness in my Invons. Tell of the insects by the most horrible smells: human being. But there was the intimate terms on which I live with all in vain. He convealed the female in side. The same insert which confounded from the Camber where she has been you, of the patience with which I oba cupboard. The arrivals went straight us by its knowledge, and wisdom, also lying. As the mooring ropes were let go. serve you; of the care with which I to the closed doors and bent on then with disconcerted us with its ignorance and the Last Surrey Regimental Band tock record your actions.
circumstances up a position on the Camber right under And then, my their wings. One definite result was, outside its range of knowledge. Fabre the lee of the boat and played the King's stupidity in the face of dear insects, if you cannot convince however, obtained. If the female was these good people, I in my turn will imprisoned in any hermetically sealed drew a very sharp-line between instinet Regimental march, amidst the cheering of and the reasoning faculty and concluded the troops on board and the troops and say to them: You rip up an animal. receptacle, not a moth appeared upon that there was nothing in all his studies civilians on shore. As the vessel drew but I study it alive; you turn it into the scene.
and investigations to convince him that away from the share the band on shore an object of horror and pity, whereas
the insects had the slightest glimmering played Auld Lang Syne" and The I cause it to be loved. You labour in
of real intelligence. To him the pheno King's Band afterwards took up the a torture chamber and dissecting room; I make my observations under the blue
ena of instinct remained a mystery, an train. As the Derbyshire commenced to sky, to the song of the cicadas. you
inviolable secret, and he utterly refused steam up the harbour towards Lyemun pry into death: I pry into life."
to admit that the evolutionary theory of Pass, great cheering broke out on board Darwin could possibly explain it. and the officers were seen to join hands with their Commanding Officer (Col. Blake) in the centre, presumably singing "Auld Lang Syne. As the Derbyshire rushed up the harbour the Regiment was greeted with cheering on all sides. · The
A MOST ACCOMPLISHED POISONED.
"Can the insect," he writes, "have acquired its skill gradually, from genera tion to generation. by a long series of casual experiments, or blind gropings Can such order be born of chaos, such
The lecturer also gave some notes on the glow worm, which is not a worm at all, but a beetle, and, in spite of its harmless and even romantic appearance. an eater of flesh, a hunter of living game # LIPA STORY OF THE CICADA.
and one of the most accomplished poi Selecting from the small denizens of soners of the insect world. Its favourite Fabre's chosen country," Colonel Davy prey is a snail which would not at first told the life-story of the cicada, pausing sight appear an easy victim to such a to explode a fable, the origin of which feeble little creature. But the glow-worm is lost in the mists of antiquity, which has the power, shared, by many other foresight of bazard, such wisdom of men on the Titania warn Keen gathered represents the cicada in winter, starving Insect assassins, to inject an anaesthetic stupidity! Is the world subject to the in thus peak of the vessel and cheering and destitute, begging a few grains of before devouribg its prey. According to fatalities of evolution or is it ruled by lustily. Then the sailors of the French wheat from the anta granary. Fabre Fabre, the glow-worm has two mandibles, an Intelligence The more I see and the flagship, Jules Ferry, joined in, and the showed that the cicada never eats wheat, very sharp and as thin as a hair. The more I observe, the more does this Intel farewell was continued as the Derbyshire or anything else it only drinks. It is microscope reveals a slender groove run-ligence shines behind the mystery of passed by the Hawking, and the light the ant which exploits the cicada. Colonel ning throughout its length: that is all. things."
cruisers in turn. When the cheering died Davy mentioned that the grubs which The glow worm repeatedly taps the snail's
away the King's band could be still heard emerge from the eggs of the cicado wan- mantle with its instrument." It all hap- After showing a number of lantern playing "Auld Lang Syne”” der for four long years beneath the so- pens with such gentleness "as to suggest slides, Colonel Davy mentioned that on The King's Regiment have left a re- 'face of the ground, feeding on the sap of kisses rather than bites. The kiss of the his departure from the Colony, which is putation behind them of being real good roots. At length the great day of incl glow-worm produces, not death, but true impending, he will present some volumes sports and will long be remembered by metamorphosis approaches: The adult anaesthesia. Human science did not in- of Fabre's translated works to the Helens many as the "Sporting Battalion. grub han constituted for itself an ingeni-vent this epoch-making hoon to modern May Institute in the hope of furthering Amongst those witnessing the departure ous waiting-room, a few inches below the surgery. Far away back, long before promoting an interest in the naturalists of the Regiment were the General Officer surface,... Slowly and with difficulty it man appeared on the earth, the humble work. Mrs. Kemp, on behalf of the Commanding the Troops in China (Major "hurrowa to the surface, For some little glow-worm, and doubtless many others Committee, acknowledged the gift in a General Sir John Fowler, K.C.M.G.), Col
time it wanders about, seeking some of the insect world, were expert practi-brief speech of thanks.
Dary, RE, and Commodore Grace, -suitable support for the final act twig tioners in the art?
The Rev. J. Kirk Maconachie made a B.N. Practically all the Officers of the
pow Regiment were also present,
A PRESENTATION.
or stem which it ascends and grips firmly. (Continued at foot of next column.) genial chairman.
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