Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 August 1893 — A Friendly Wasp. [ARTICLE]

A Friendly Wasp.

A gentleman becoming annoyed by the persistent buzzing of a wasp about his head, knocked it down with his newspaper. It fell through an open window upon the sill apparently dead. Only apparently, for a few seconds later, to the observer's astonishment, a large wasp flew on to the window sill, and, after buzzing around the injured one a second or two, began to lick it all over. After this treatment (which may have been a kind of massage) the sick wasp seemed to revive, and his friend then dragged him gently to the edge, grasped him around the body and flew away with him. Evidently the stranger, finding a wounded comrade, gave some aid to restore him preliminary to removal to a place of safety for further treatment, and then carried him there. This brave little wasp acted like a good Samaritan, who found a man “halfdead,” “bound up his wounds, pouring on them oil and wine,” and “brought him to an inn and took care of him.” A Murderer Suicides in a Coffin. Henry Merrill, aged 60, of Wardner, Idaho, who murdered a man last June, was found dead in a coffin the other day. He crawled into the casket and after lying down put a bullet through his brain. Some Grangers Know This. A wonderfully good imitation of maple sugar may be made by flavoring ordinary brown sugar with an extract of hickory bark. It is said to be almost Indistinguishable from the gemiina