The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1874-07-09

THE HOUSE PLY.-Wc observe that con.
temporary INDUCES in much Of very anna
bic depreciation Of that very festive little
>ctsvcnger, the house fly. There are many
things TO be said III apology for that little
.'harDy.' He is 80 familiar, sticks TO us 50
closely, and is so actively employed all the
time. If you kccptkc fly-brush waving for
three hours steadily, and stop it half Sc
cond, hundred D!es will light near you.
many Of them on your person and few on
your very DOSE. How are We to discard
these devoted little friends Of ours! They
keep people awake in the daytime and they
20 70 sleep with them o nights. They cherish
Industry. while there is fatal disposition 10
apathy, and therefore deserve the appreba-
ton of dilgent people.
True, they have with all their virtues
ruthless cncmics-riy., the spider and
the hornet. We have pitied them a
little when beholdiYg them in the claws
OF these terocious adversarieS; yet if we
could tell the truth without their knowing
it, and without being victimized with their
remor>cless teazines, we would say that We
wish the spiders and hornets would catch
them all
And yet young women will scream when
the beI-hornet flies around affecting great
congeniality, lighting amongst the flies, and
occasionally on beautiful li!ly.whte hand,
when Ire would as soon think of suicide as to
sting that hand. That is not his business
stall-and he is not dreaming of it; but let
him catch fly and you will soon see him
bite of tue fly's wings aud depart with him
to add to his commissary stores.
Nor do people feel less dislike for the
spider than they do for the hornet. He is
brushed away and destroyed as if he were
an enemy aud meant to do harm. On the
contrary be is friend. he spins a finer
| web than ever human spinner span, ano
catches and deyours the little harpy" with
| out remorse. Only he doesn't catch enough
of them! The spider is sharp: He can fore
| tell the weather, and is known to roll up hi:
| web and swallow it sometimes to save il
from being torn by storm which be fore
sees. And his web, how uniform and ar
| tistic!
! Yet the spider has his enemy. The mud
wasp, or I" dirt.dobber," will drag him from
his cunningly formed residence and plac
him in partitioned apartment of his CALLER,
to afford subsistence for the young that is t,
be Matched from the egg deposited in tn
same department. Break the she'll of tn
mud>wasp's dwelling and you will see tn
proof OF this. The wasp stings the spider
aud he becomes helpless, and yet does no
die. He lives until the young wasp i
hatched, and begins to feed upon him.
| Don't think hard of the spider, for his j
a cruel fate and he does little harm-non
that we know of save to Kill few of thos
little harpies who play so many merry rigg
| with the sugar and the figs and tease so per
siStently all sleepy-lleaded persons on
warm day. The 'dirt-dobber" consumes
great many of them, yet in the completion o
the mysterious chain of providence by which
it would seem every animal has its enemy
and must be in turn preyed upon, we can
not say what is the enemy of the mud-wasl
and how he winds up his existence.
Pardon, reader, this diversion from the
"nouse fly" We intended only word
about him, and TO beg you to be calm and
resigned, submitting to the annoyance OIL
this summer pest as philosophically as you
csu. He is a scavenger and may be neces.
sary to health. Nevertheless, with the calm
est minds his provocation is such as TO excite
a little cussing, and to cause even a saint to
say "Shoo Fly" with an inward maledictiop.