Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1863-07-10
Written for the Cedar Falls Gazette.
NIGHT IMPS.
BY DAN DE QUiLLE,
- Longd est i.yuria, longae ...

GREAT IS THE INJURY, AND LONG THE TALE
Almost have l been tempted 10 swear; -
indeed fear that should have made use or
some bad language this evening had not
remembered the sinfulness of so doing. Af
ter all, l might have been caught tripping
but that the following homely words Of old
Chaucer popped into my head: "What say
we exc of hem that deliten hem in swering,
and hold it genterie or manly dede to swere
gret othes? And what of hem that of veray
usage ne cese not to swere gret othes, al be
the cause not worth straweg Certes this
is horrible slime. Swering sodenly without
avisement is also CRETE sinne." Now had
sworn, l feel that it would have been fire.
quent and " sudden"-to Chaucer owe my
escape from q CRETE sinne." But it is time
you should know the cause of my heat and
ire. 1t is this; every evening, the moment
l light my lamp, I am stunned and over.
whelmed by cloud Of insects of thousand
various hues and aspects. They come whiz.
zing through the air, on shrill and disagreea-
bic wing tumble down from the ceilings; skip
and bound through the doors, crawl along the
floors and gallop to and fro over carpet and
curtain. If not outwardly, yet must I con.
fess that in the secret chambers of my heart,
| have long cursed these disturbers o: my
peace yea, have Illuminated against them
Individually and collectively--many bitter
lnaledictions. Even now doth ferment in my
soul many imprecations good to be poured
out against these mine tormentors. As ]
write, even at this moment, they pipe in mine
ears their shrill thunder; bang against the
walls, drive into my lamps, tumble down up
on my paper, and then, to aggravatc the in.
trusion, spin round on their mailed and clat
tering backs--screech! heavens, do but lis
tenl
l have waited long, hoping that some more
able and vcnomous writer would take pen II
hand and say unpleasant things of these in
tolerable pests. Why have they been sc
long suffered to continue their vile prosecu
tons unrebukedi Danish me to a land wher,
is, weeping and wayling, and sharpe hun
ger and thurst, and grislinesse of divels,
but spare-O, spare me the prosecutions o
these microscopic monsters! For, small a,
they are, maintain they are ters-yea
many and divers of them monsters of. /" hid
eous MEN,. ;. Yes, greater monsters than th,
Plesiosaurus, Mastodon, Megalosaurus. Me
gatherium Megalonix, fossil tapir, and othel
antideluvian cattle whose bones miners ant
others who "moil underground" sometime.
find embedded in the soil, or rock of thi.
restless and mysterious bal, ycleped Earth
Though, in this connection, there would per
haps be no harm in telling my reader that a
least one man of science, NJ. de Marschall
is Of the opinion that these mastodons, and
tapirs, with all fhe smaller fry accompanying
them, as ammonites, mytilites,-and all such
zoophitic worms, with the rocks in which
they are found embedded, have been pro-
jectcd, like meteoric stones from the heav.
ems, or the moon. Now, for my part,
would much rather believe that all the mas.
todons, tapirs, the zoophitic fry. and the hor.
rible bugs that are now beating my brow
with their scaly wings, were vomited Up from
regions lying in an opposite direction to
heaven, or the moon. Wouldn't your
& The owl il abroad, the bat, and,she toad,
"And so IL the cat-a mountain,
The ant and the mole st both in hole,