Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1873-10-18
The Lessons of the MOSQUITO.

is doing well. --rr-,.r
The Lessons of the Mosquito.
September, whether it he the month
of financial crashes, or preparations for
political strife, of social disorder, or of
religious awakening, can never come
round without bringing serious and
painful reflections to very large pro-
portion of our citizens. This subject OF
reflection is one that cannot he avoided
even by the most though,less. Boys
and girls in the hey-day and bloom of
their youth are known to think deeply
about it. Men advanced in life, weigh
ed down with the teeming cares of busi-
ness, can yet take time to ponder on it.
Even such an unrefiective person as the
Democratic politician has been known
to lie awake at night discussing this
subject with thoroughly Democratic
earnestness and vigor. The mention of
the last individual warns us that no
mystifcation should be attempted, so
we announce the mosquito to be our
| fruitful theme; we all know whence they
come. Their properties are well under
stood, and nothing can prove their i'm
rortance better than the pains taken for
their reception. We do not indeed, ike
our brethren in the farther north, give
them the oleaginous pleasure of alight-
ing on bodies adorned by coats of
grease. Nor do we usually build great
fires for their reception. like our coun-
trymen in the West. We do, however,
show them great consideration in the
elaborate erection of bars, and the en-
pensive construction of nets, through
the interstices of which the mosquito
gaily admits itself, and makes it's pres
ence felt by cheerful sounds and delicate
punctures. "
These peculiarities of the friendly
mosquito are, however, too well known
and appreciated to call for much consid-
Grafton here. Its eminence as a musician
is beyond cavil. The service it performs
in letting blood, particularly that of the
newly arrived immigrant, who hut for
this and kindred reasons might become
unbearably arrogant, is ungrudgingly
admitted. 1t is in a social and political
aspect that the mosquito gives the most
food for reflection. Eminent naturalists,
quoted with care in the most trust
worthy encyclopedia, declare that in
point of Importance the female mosqui-
to is infinitely superior to the male. We
learn, indeed, that the males are but
poor things, content, in the simple Ian
guage of the naturalist, "with pleasant
antenne, not to annoy us with their
bites, but simply fit from flower to flow
er, slipping the dew and sweet juices,
requiring but little, if any, food. propa-
eating their speceis, and soon after dy-
ing" Here is a picture for discomfort
ed woman to ponder over. Here she
finds the natural enemies of her sex,
though only in the world of mosqui-
toes, reduced to their proper level, per.
haps innocently priding themselves on
their plumed antenn@, indulging in sim
pie pastoral pleasures, never vcxing
their better halves on the subject of
food, but doing the only duty they seem
to have come into the world for, and
dying. This is as it should be. What,
on the contrary, are the functions of the
female mosquito! She does not fit
from flower to flower, slipping dew and
juices. She scorns such mean pastimes.
Mapy-legged and venom-tongucd, she
plunges INTO the very haunts OF men.
The busy hum of populous cities is mu-
sic in her ears. She darts from house
to house, devouring the lite-blood of the
infant with the same deXterity and
heartlessness she does that of its par
ents; raising unsightly protuberances on
the cheek OF beauty, or making ugiiness
more ugly, and doing all with keen
enjoyment but feebly expressed in her
trlumphant, il rather monotonous,
music. The whole life OF the female
mosquito is one of battle and danger, OF
struggle and privation. The world is
in arms against her. Her sting is against
every man, and every mans hand is
against her. When the end comes, at
ter night passed in the endowment of
human gore, and she is crushed between
the palms OF some monster, her death Id
a triumph, for the monster finds his
hands stained with his own blood, upon
which the female mosquito has been lat
tening.
Tins reversal of the functions OF the
sexes ought not to be without its whole
some lesson. We commend 1t TO Miss
Susan B. Anthony and her friends. Let
them read up the subject with care, Let
{ them discover when and how the revo'
luton which must have occurred in the
mosquito world took place-what causes
led to'it, what tyrannies and barbarities
Il on the part of the males caused the up
rising Of the ffemsles and their ultimate