The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1871-08-10
THE MOSQUITO.

Mosquitoes vary in size as much as po-
tatoes, but average we'll in this region.
They are built on the same plan as the
elephant (only a trifie smaller) having
plenty OF legs, bob tail, with trunk or
bill on the front eud of them Their
body Is all stomach, and their trunk is a
suction pump, gimblct-pointed, and hard
as Damascus steel. They are bird of
song, although Audubon classes them
strictly game bird, but he was liable to
mistakes as well as the Telegraph In
these parts they 60 wild while in some
States they are utilized for labor In
some parts OF New Jersey where the soil
ls so thin that horses and oxen cannot be
worked with safety lest they break
throughi they are used for farm purposes,
three pair of full-blood Jersey mosquitoes
being considered equal to tandem team
OF two geese, or one middlng~sized goat.
We know this to be fact, having fre-
qCently seen the farmers there plowinS
and doing other work with above named
labor saving machines. Down south when
vessel is ready for planking, the planks
are laid on 10 the timbers and little blood
rubbed on 10 the inside Of them, when
the mosquitoes will sting through the
plank and timber, and the men inside will
rivet up their bills and thus save bolls and
treeRails. \ weIl>built vessel, mosquito
fastened, is considered first class lob.
Mosquitoes round in these parts are
trifle smaller than humming bird. and
as musical as a sewing machine. There
are more pleasing moments in a mans life
than those In which he lies in bed on a
sultry night, and listens to tie mosquitoes
warbling in the distance, and hears them
approaching the bed humming over the
familiar song of 'Fe, Fl, Fo, Fun, l
smell the blood of an Englishman," and
know that he is the person meant. He
does not take hold of much solid comfort,
as atOu d., zen Of them light en- him
with n ''ziz," set their drills and COM
mence boring for his blood. He can't
drive them away, he can't 60 away him
self:
He may slat round and swear as much as he
will,
! But the pesky mosquito will linger there still,
| Sting tapping his skin with bloody long bill,
And there it will sit till it has guzzled a gill
or thereabouts
For real pleasure, we would prefer
! sleeping in a beehive to undertaking to
bottle up sleep in the midst of swarm of
mosquitoes. In this connection we can
not help quoting the lines of DR.. Watts,
commencing:
When we've tried all the week to be good,
How pleasant on Saturday night
To sit up till morning in bed,
The confounded mosquitoes to fight.
> m
government contractors conscience. A
common sized ''skeet" will hold half
pint of blood, and when person is VIC
timized by a swarm of hundred thous-
and or SO, tapping him in different places,
1t is easy to see that there is quite drain
on his system. As songsters they are
equal, if not Superior to the mule or shang-
hal. We hear of chap who, on enter
ing his room in boarding house i'll Brook
iyn, heard some one sirglng, and On
lighting the gas, lie espied mosquito
sitting on a match sailing round in the
wash-bowl, singing, GA Life on Ihs Ocean
Wave" But this was an exceptional
case. We shall not attempt joke on the
mosquitoes bill, as that subject has been
handled about as much as it will be, and
we don't know that we owe them anys
thing, as it is always our intention to can.
eel our accouat at the time.
If there is one satisfaction that is at least
ten feet ahead of any other satisfaction,
it is to enter your sleeping room on the
window sills and chairs, and to then and
there disrobe, crawl into bed, beneath a
! good bar, lie there and hear them cuss
and swear outside the net. We consider
that the most satisfactory thing it is pos
| sible to conceive And while we are
mentioning the thing, we would suggest
the arrangement of mosquito bars and
nets in the windows, as we can never tell
when we are liable 70 have the itch, or be
favored with mosquitoes. There are peo-
PIE who consider that mosquitoes are
made in vain, but to our minds, if nature
ever got up anything that was perfect
success, it was when the MOSQUITO was
produced. If they were made for any
thing it was to bite, and as bitist we
would like to see ones equal.-M I.
Argus.