Show aim AS THE TINY AH ferocious FErO ClOUS IN so violona arc tiny tin y flint riven tairi t alert them in combat A glnn alion altex hade n 1 was one of six filin their camp by a ant army said a mining expert who lately arrived from venezuela we retreated before the in adars without making a ight and tor two good reasons in the first place we would have got the worst ot the encounter and secondly wo knew that it wo let them alone they would do us a good service shortly after dawn one sunday our native cook burst in upon us with tha news that we were about to be attacked by an army of ants we biad heard enough about ant armies to know what to do we arose hastily and every ounce of provisions that was not scaled in cans or in jar was hurriedly piled on a table the four legs of which were immersed in as many basins oc water every maneuver that is known to the armies of civilized humans you may safely expect from an ant army but the little black warriors havo never learned to swim our pro inions thua protected we left the camp to and went out to reconnoiter for the invaders and to watch their assault from a distance the army was making fair time an irregular patch 0 black 10 feet wide and double as long was swarming steadily toward our camp As the army was in no way disturbed by our presence it was possible to approach its lines closely there must have been millions upon millions of little soldiers marching hip to hip at the head marched the reader on aci t the army up the posts of the camp and then within once within the army spread itsell in all directions forming hundreds oc little attacking parties the camp wat an old palm thatched affair and so infested scorpions and spiders that we had been on the point of destroying it now however the ants had come and would clean house for us and therefore they were welcome the ants swarmed vip the foists joists and the dry leafy walls and wherever there was a spider or a bug there was a brief tussle and a dead foe but there was bigger game in store for tha invaders tho star battle vas with an immense one of the bluish gray kind about seven inches long and as big around as bouc middle finger he darted out of a hole like n alir streak evidently trusting to his speed and superior strength to run through the ranks but he go three feet before lie was stopped aau literally covered him he turned on himself and swept them from ats back but before ho had gone another three feet ho was buried beneath another swarm of his plucky assailants and then began a fight to the death again and again he swept his tor mentors from his back waslo from all sides hurried streams of ants to take abo place 0 fallen comrades the wriggling of the big fellow became less violent as the fight progressed and finally after an effort which I 1 well knew was a desperate last one ho remained quiet while what little life was left in him was bitten out of him later when the army had retreated and when wa had swept up the and plona and lizards and a tarantula which the ant army had vanquished we put the hero of the star battle uri a quartz magnifying glass TH 0 bodies of dead ants still duns to their foe prom his back from his legg from wherever there was a chance for a hold the bodies of ants dangled hold ing on I 1 suppose by their teeth perhaps you wonder what would to a man who would under 1 take to fight an army of ants assuming of course ahat the man relies on hia natural means of defense his hands and feet I 1 can best illustrate that by the rare story ot an unfortunate who was brought to a hospital in caracas shortly before my return home the man was a coolie who hail worked on a cocoa plantation in a crecli not far from caracas following a habit of some of his countrymen tho coolie owing to the heat had left his camp and stretched himself on tte ground to sleep outdoors exactly what followed no cue can say with certainty presumably he was surround cil and covered by an army of ants before ho awakened at dawn the shrieks and cries of a man lit agony aroused the inmates of the camp who ran out to learn the cause the man was gesticulating wildly and calling for help walled he squirmed and writhed and slapped his face ami neck and chest and legs in a mad effort to slap himself all ever at once ho was standing in the midst of an army of ants and was too distracted with pain to run away then be did exactly what a panther or leopard docs when he is being overcome the maa threw himself to the ground to roll ahli tormentor to death A single active white man could have saved the poor wretch but the stupefied barelegged coolies dared not or thought not of rescue while the victim himself was too crazed with agony to sock othar than instant relief from a slight personal experience 1 know the poor fellow was burning in a fire which would tike hours to kill him finally a bystander regained hla wits and rushed into the midst of tha army and dragged the man after him and threw him into the creek tho rescue came too late the victim became unconscious ills velvety brown skin was a aln mass of raw alte when lie camo tn the hospital ne ani abound band and foot a maniac choso whoso continuous notion was that he was bene eaten lv nuu new york sun |