True stories of old Houston and Houstonians: historical and personal sketches / by S. O. Young. Page: 98

98 TRUE STORIES OF OLD
happy-go-lucky Frank of a quarter of a century ago to the staid
country gentleman he is today.
FIGHTING HOUSTON BOYS.
LAST winter I was out walking with a gentleman near San
Antonio when he suddenly turned to me and asked:
"What has become of all the tumble bugs?"
The question was so uncalled for, so foreign to all we had
been talking about, that for a moment I suspected him of being
the victim of sudden insanity.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"I mean just what I say; what has become of all the tumble
bugs?" said he. "When you and I were boys there were millions
of them everywhere, bright shiny fellows with yellow and gold
on their wings and back, and black and brown ones. You could
see them everywhere, but now you stop and think and see if
you don't find that you have seen only a stray one, now and
then, for years past. What has become of them?"
I did stop and think and the more I thought the more I realized
that what he said was true, and now I am like he and would
like to have some scientific bug sharp answer his question. I
have heard that quail and some other birds go with civilization
and accompany the footsteps of the pioneer. If that be true,
I see no reason why the tumble bug should not have his own
individual peculiarity, which causes him to get out of the way
completely when civilization shows up. -Perhaps that is the
proper answer to my friend's question.
But I am not going to write anything about the disappearance
of the tumble bug, for I don't know anything to write, beyond
the fact that he has disappeared. The question I had in mind
is one of equal importance and is related also to a disappearance
-that of the fighting boy of long ago, who loved nothing better
than a good scrap and who felt lonesome and somewhat humili.
ate