Show Grasshopper Horde Sweeps Over Rome Fires Fail to Halt Advance By THOMAS B. B MORGAN United Press Staff Correspondent ROME Aug Aup 4 4 Thick Thick swarms of grasshoppers descended on on Rome today today to to- day attacking the ancient capital by the millions a aThe The insects infested d the entire cit city They covered ered the tile houses buildings and thoroughfares and their advance guards swarmed across the countryside country country- side causin causing anxiety and no little I damage from Rome to the seaside resorts of Austria Trees in in the war zone were stripped and bare Motorists reported report report- ed the highways thick with the In tn sects They crunched through rods roads deep with the pests while their windshields wind shields were black with grasshoppers and radiators caught hundreds RAILROADS INFESTED I Railways s 's reported similar experiences In coming through the grasshopper grasshopper grass grass- hopper zone to Rome The heavens were cre dark with Ith clouds clouda of the hoppers I rising for brief scurrying flig flights ts over i the fields Train windows were closed tightly despite the summer heat but thousands of Insects found their way Into the coaches Peasants set fire to their fields in inan inan an effort to halt the advance of the I grasshopper armies They reported great burned destroying hundreds of thousands of ot hoppers but without an apparent effect on the march of the pests GROWING WORSE The swarms were reported growing grow ing worse dall daily in the rural districts Carabineers ordered the peasants to cease setting fire to their fields when this mode of defense appeared futile The grasshoppers that reached the city died by tens of ot thousands They hopped onto buildings and died of ot starvation star before they could move on onI onU U io find fields where they could ca caThe eat cat I The street department had difficulty In sweeping them away |