Because women in the east wanted to wear ornamental June bugs in their hair, an enterprising boy in Tucson made a killing by selling the bugs.
From the Arizona Daily Star, Wednesday, July 19, 1916:
Tucson Boy Gets Order For 25,600 June Bugs From An Eastern Firm
Insects Will Be Used as Ornaments for Coiffures of New York’s “400”
Did you ever hear of June bugs being used for hat pins and other ornaments?
Probably not, and neither did Willis Downing, of 433 East Second street, until last week, when he received an order from an eastern jewelry firm for one hundred pounds of dried bronze June bugs.
The firm from which the order came converts the bugs into ornaments. In the process used the dried bugs are treated with a chemical that petrifies them, at the same time preserving their color and peculiar lustre. Then they are dipped in a cold and silver solution, the original bronze green tints still showing through.
Although the bugs when finished by this process, can be used for all sorts of articles, it is mainly for hair ornaments and hat pins that they are utilized.
Willis is quite enthusiastic over his new “business” and is making preparations for trapping the elusive bugs with just as much care and forethought as hunters employ in getting animals for menageries and zoological exhibits.
He expects to catch the bugs on grape vines and fig trees. In the June bug season the insects seek the fig trees and perhaps as many as four may be found on one fig. He will catch them either in a net or else by shaking them into a pail of water. Then he will dry them and ship them east in tin boxes containing about two pounds each.
As the average June bug weighs about one-sixteenth of an ounce, he will have to gather approximately 25,600 of the insects.
The eastern firm pays at the rate of 50 cents per pound, which is the present market rate on dried June bugs.
People are also reading…
Well, people will buy almost anything!
Meanwhile, the Star reported on militiamen by printing a letter from one to his parents in Connecticut.
Typical Letter From Militiaman to Folks
Tells of Reception Given by Members of Tucson Red Cross
Tucson is getting some splendid advertising and publicity from the entertainment of national guardsmen passing through, although that was not the purpose, of course, of the local Red Cross and other who have aided in the work.
The following, from the Waterbury (Conn.) American is a sample of press notices that are appearing all over the United States.
Private Shaw’s home is at 94 Woodside avenue. He wrote as follows to his parents:
“We have just reached Nogales, and at this writing we are waiting on board train for orders. We were given tourist cars the day before yesterday, and believe me, they are moving palaces in comparison to this eon which we made the biggest part of the trip.
“Yesterday morning when we awoke we found ourselves in El Paso, Tex., one of the finest places we have struck since leaving Chicago. We have seen some real western life the last few days—regular cowboys greeting you at little stations that boast of three or four saloons and a general store. One rides for miles and miles without seeing a soul. Arizona is certainly the nearest to a desert that you can imagine.
“Last night about 8 o’clock we hit the town of Tucson which is the largest and richest in the Southwest. Here we were tendered quite a reception by the townspeople, getting all we wanted of coffee, milk, cookies, and cigars. We have quite a few good singers among us, and the people listened to our ‘concert’ with some delight.
“Trains are pulling in here (Nogales) every hour, from all points of the country with troops. They tell us the climate in this town is very healthy, being some distance above sea level. We are all in good condition and outside of the lack of exercise we can hardly realize that we have been riding for nearly a week.
“We haven’t heard any alarming [unreadable word] of the natives here are telling is of things that might happen. But we have heard so many different opinions as to the feeling of the people, we don’t know just what conditions are.”
