Matilda Sechrist
Cincinnati Enquirer, 4 June 1902, page 3
The seventeen year locust which has arrived in myriads in this
section of the country scored its first victim yesterday in the person of
Matilda Sechrist, a little girl residing at Johns Hill near Newport Ky. The
cicada, or locust, as it is commonly known, is an insect of peaceable instincts,
but cases are known where persons have suffered intense pain from the stings of
these little winged visitors.
Matilda and a younger brother were playing in the yard surrounding the residence of their parents and the boy amused himself by pulling the locusts from the trees by the handful. Thinking to frighten her he threw a number of the insects in his sister's face, and one of them alighted in her right eyelid and stung her severely.
The little one screamed in agony as the locust dropped to the grass and shortly after the right side of her face swelled to immense proportions and her right eye closed. Physicians were called and administrated treatment as blood poisoning is feared.