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Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2279, 26 August 1870, Page 2

The 4 NT !~TIie ant is a meuny footted insekt. The}'' live about one thou« sand five hundred and fifty of them (more or less) in the same hole in the ground, and hold their property in common. They hav no holydaya, no eight-hour aistem, nor never strike for enny higher wages. They are cheerful little toilers and hav lid malice nor back door to their hearts. There iz no sedentary loafers amimg them, and yu never see one out ov a job. They get up arly, go tew bed late, work all the time, and eat on the run. Yu never see two ants argueing sum phoolish question that neither ov them didn’t understand ; they’don’t'kare whether the moon iz inhabited or not; nbi ; whether a fish weighing two pounds, put into a pail of water alreddy phul, will make the pail slop over, or weigh more. They ain’t 'a huntin' after the philosopher’s 1 nor gittiug crazy over the caifee of the siid ; den earthquake«. They don’t care whether Jupiter iz thirty or " thirty one million® "ov miles np in the air, or whether the-arth bobs round on. its axes or not, so long as it don't bob over then korn* crib i»ndtheir . u\} « ■ .ni”• < r C*: :r [/ ■ .If’ll' •»:

barley. They are simple, little, bizzy aunts, full ov faith, working hard, living prudently, committing no sin, minding their own bizzness, and dicing when their time comes, tew make room for the next crop ov ants. They are a reproach tew the lazy, an encouragement tew the industrious, a rebuke tew the viscious, and a study to the Christian. If yu want tew take a lesson in arkitekture, go and set down bi the side ov their hole in the ground, and wonder how so menny kan liv so thick. If man had (added tew his capacity) the pashunce and grit ov these little atoms ov animated natur, every mountin on the buzzum ov the arth would, before this, hav bin levelled, and every inch ov surface would scream with fruitfulness, and countless lots ov human critters would have bin added to the inhabitants ov the universe, and bin fed on corn and other sass. Ants are older than Adam. Man (for very wize reasons) want hilt until all other things -were finished, and pronounced good. If man had bin made fust he would nave insisted upon bossing the rest ov the job. He probably would hav objekted to having enny little bizzy aunts at all, and various other objekshuus would hav been offered ecpia ly green. lam glad that man waz the last thing made. If man hadn’t hhv bin made at all, you never would lav heard me find enny fault about it. —Jotsh Billings.