The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1869-06-25
A Flea Entertainment.

Flea Entertainment.
In London a Young Englishman is con-
ductlng an exhibition OF very curious
character. He is the proprietor OF q stud
of performing fleas; or, to use the words
of his own announcements, of trained
Aptertus insects, the only specimens of the
Articulata in the world ever taught to per-
FORM" The London Daily News says
''We went to the sight, fearing that orr
sense of refinement would be shocked, but
found, upon entering the room, q tastefully
decorated apartment and several ladies
with their children adniring the household
foes which a wholesome sense of
duty teaches them generally to
crush. Mr.. buckingham, the exhibitor,
has toiled hard and long to bring his exhi-
bition to its present successful condition.
Like the everlasting cookery book hare, the
heas have had first to be caught, then
shipped hither from Russia, Belgium and
France, or elsewhere, and afterwards sub
jected to training in which severity and
tenderness are pretty equally proportioned.
Without going so far as the exhibitor, who
believes the little wretches he protects have
intellects, and says he has seen theirbrains,
we must confess our establishment at the
novel figure they are made to cut, although
in an age like this one ought not to be
amazed at sllcn a trifle as the spread of ed
ucation among fieas. The insects in Re-
gent street draw carriages, act as tug to a
man-of-war, fire off gun, perform on the
tight-rope, draw q bucket out of an imag
mary we'll, leap and swing, and execute
other evolutions upon q white, smooth
table. 5. ET
These things, however, are not done by
| the fleas as by other beings. The volunta-
ry system is quiet ignored, and the Won
der of the exhibition is rather marvellous
delicacy of the machinery than the genius
of the performers Mr.. buckingham, after
years of patient has perfected set of Lii
! liputian articles, designed and made by his
own hands, that are of themselves of the
rarest kind, and the visitor will soon per-
ceive that they are most ingeniously made
| for heas, and not the heas for them. TAX
| ing the raw, untutored flea between his fin.
ger and thumb, with touch that few could
command, the proprietor fastens by a pc
culiar moose fine hair round the insects
trunk, leaving the two ends standing Oh
inch or so above the back, like q couple OF
overgrown feelers These hair-ends are
fastened to the apparatus, generally by in
sertion in the split of tiny straw, and this
this difficult operation having been done
without injury to wind or limb, the har
nassed captive is attached to the particular
service for which its talents fit it,
"The Russian and Belgian fleas are IA
vorite pupils, but the English breed, after
much starving and training, become the
toughest and best We observed one OF
Saturday, however, fretting III the collar
very painfully and drawing his ivory Cal
with hop, skip, and jump, instead of the
steady, easy trot which the Russian or Bel
| gian affected. Perhaps it was too much tC
expect right minded flea to be docile un
der the circumstances in the presence O
rudy children and blonde ladies. One o.
two Of the performers were pointed out as
the inheritors of green old age; they had
lived nine months, and were now, III the
course of nature, nearing the day of theil
death. Three or four months-nay, weeks
however, are considered hard age for {
| q flea to live.
'Mr Kitchingman, with touching affec
ton, allows his fieas to live out of himself,
which is nothing but fair, seeing that he
lives out of them. Every day, when some
thing attempted and something done has
earned them nights repose, he feeds his
flock upon the back of his hand, puts eact
individual between two blankets, an6
the whole layer into a box, where they
| slumber secure, out of harms way, and
ought to be able to rise in the morning with
clear consciences towards all mankind
The unframed reserve stock 1.-TWO or three
| hundred) are kept in stoppered bottle
full of ii innel wool. The exhibitor gives
his visitors much information upon this
special branch of natural history"