December 1927
796
T h e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
immature butterfly is consumed, the larva or worm which is to develop into the fully developed wasp, goes into the next or pupa stage of its life history, all its wants having been supplied by the splendid work of its unknown mother. . Is it possible to conceive of these wonderful powers as the product of any evolutionary process ? In that case, there was a time when the mother wasp knew nothing of anatomy or surgery. If that is true, what would become of the wasp when it attempted to paralyze its meat sup ply ? There is but one answer. The wasp would be killed and the entire race of wasps would be annihilated, so that today there would be no such wasp family to be found. We are compelled to believe that the first wasp knew as much as its modern descendants, and possessed a knowl edge which must have been conferred by an Omniscient Maker. Live To Give John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, and editor of the first Wesleyan Hymnal, was a generous soul. The only use he had for money was to give it away. “I gain all I can,” he wrote, “not wasting anything—not a sheet of paper, not a cup of water.” : When his income was 30 pounds a year he lived on 28 pounds and gave away 2 pounds. When it reached 60 pounds, and even 120 pounds, he still lived on 28 pounds, and gave away the balance. A wealthy lady left him 1,000 pounds in her will, and he gave it all away, by fifties and hundreds, counting himself sim ply “God’s steward for the poor.” In later years, when’ he might have amassed a fortune by the sale of his books, he lived on a small amount and gave the rest away. When eighty years of age, he tramped, through the streets of London that he might save money to distribute among the poor. For years he gave away 1,000 pounds annually, and, taken as a whole, he gave away not less than 30,000 pounds during his life.
tined never to see, it has not forgotten to look for the proper rations, and on a neighboring viné, in the person of one or more fat and succulent caterpillars, they are found. When the hidden rooms are completely ready the wasp is confronted with a most delicate surgical operation, re quiring a precise knowledge of anatomy and the possession of inconceivable surgical skill, along with the necessary tool of the most delicate description. The caterpillar must be completely and instantly paralyzed, but not killed, by the very first attack. The attacker goes up to the un=- suspecting caterpillar and with a lightning-like thrust of its tiny lance, penetrates one of the nine ventral ganglia, or nerve centers which are to be found along the abdom inal wall of the crawling victim. These nerve-centers are only of microscopic size,%and the anatomical instinct, and operative skill which enables it to make helpless its opponent at the first stroke, is, in many ways, one of the most striking phenomena in all nature. Not content with one sword-thrust, it proceeds to puncture the remain ing eight ganglia, until there is scarcely a movement vis ible. Then the living meat must be transported to the dis tant home, necessitating the exhibition of amazing strength as the little insect tugs, pulls, and pushes the caterpillar along home. When it is safely dropped into the room where it is to be needed, the mother wasp displays another bit of inexplicable wisdom. Is T h is E volution ? The head of the caterpillar contains, of course, the vital organs, which, if eaten, would immediately result in the death of the necessary food, and the consequent anni hilation of the infant wasp. The mother, apparently sensing this important fact, never lays its egg on the head but always back on the tail end. In due cohrse, after the mother has departed, leaving the egg to bring forth the baby it will never see, the larval wasp is hatched, and find ing its food directly beneath it, takes an ample bite of the caterpillar, still living but helpless,, and when the entire
Where th is copy of The King’s Business began its journey Just a little section of the great Los Angeles Post O f f i ç e, employing 2500 people and having an aver age of 1,100,000 transac tions a day. I t’s payroll amounts to over four and a half million dollars a year. Thousands of copies o f the K. B. go through this of fice each month, and seldom is a copy lost.
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