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PALACE, TOWN AND FORT ALL IN ONE ANT HILL;
HOW IT WOULD LOOK WITH HUMAN INHABITANTS
When you step on an ant hill
you crush ruthlessly a complicat
ed architectural structure far
more wonderful, in its way, than
a modern skyscraper. In the il
lustration above the -artist has
shown how an ant hill would look
were it a human habitation.
Entering the hill at the hole in
the top an invader instantly en
counters a soldier ant, always on
guard. The first floor is the
guard room. Floor 2, counting
downwards, is the summer sleep
ing room for the workers. In the
third floor the workers live and
dine. No. 4 is the storage room,
while the fifth floor provides the
barracks for the. ants' standing
army.
They form the guard for the
queen, who lives and lays her
eggs on th floor below. Next
floor 7 come the storage rooms
of fodder and grain for the milch
cows the aphids, who sUck up
"milk" from blades of grass with
their'feet, sothat the ant milk
maids can afterwards "milk"
them by stroking their legs until
a drop of "milk" falls. Other lit
tle insects collect honey, and are
"milked" in the same way.
The stables, where theyv ate,
kept, are shown on floor 8. Then,
below the earth, we come to the
ninth floor, fhe nurseries, where
the milk and honey which the
milkmaids .have, secured is hand
ed over to the nursery-maid ants,
to be givdn to the baby ants, just
hatched as larvae, from eggs.
Below floors 10 and 11 are
other nurseries, where the baby
ants are cared for in various
stages of their growth.
Next we find the winter quar
ters of the ant kingdom, and on
the same floor is the graveyard;
for the ant city in a hill is com
plete even to a cemetery. Last of
all is the queen's winter apart
ment. o o
But Why Boost the Angel?
M. Gatti-Casazza, the manager
of the Metropolitan opera house,
was talking about famous song
birds, "These women, as a rule, are
modest," he said; "but now and
then we meet a songbird of inor
dinate vanity.
"In Milan, in the Arcade, I
chanced one afternoon upon a
songbird of the vain tvoe. and
she asked me how I had liked her
performance the evening before.
"'It was superb, perfect !' I
said.
"She beamed wtih such delight
that, to please her still more, I
added;
"'It was divine like an an
gel's song;'
'But at this she bit her lip.
"T don't see any need,' she
said, with' an annoyed air, 'of
dragging in the angel.' " Ne,w.
York Tribune. .
