The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1875-07-22
ABOUT FLIES.
House Flies, Sand Flies, Time Flies.
and Other Flies.

mduJ VI Oui lc1uCiS HAe'y oS iu.oA S'SN
in the following composition which has
been handed us by one of our education
al friends. It is credited to spirited
young lady of Georgia High School,
and was read before q large audience,
with marked effect. Although the SUBJ
iect is rather uninviting at first glance,
the youthful writer, who was remarkable
for her naivete, was rapturously applaud
ed, and her effort considered the most
popular of the day, in spite of being
somewhat chronological. Here it is:
What horrid things flies are Every
body hates them because they always
give us so much annoyance just when
we are most anxious not to be annoyed.
They seem to be intended specially to
worry us in this life and make us more
ready for an exchange to something bet
ter when the time comes for us to leave
it.
The Bible does not tell US that there
are any flies in Heaven, but speaks of it
as place of perfect happiness; and this
could not possibly be true if any flies are
to be found there. 1t tells us, though,
that when the people of Egypt were Wis
tied with ten plaques as a punishment
for their wickedness, one of these was the
plague of flies. They had flies in their
houses and temples, flies at the tops of the
pyramids and in the bottom of the wells,
f1ies in their hair, and ears, and eyes, and
faces, and undersleeves, and hats, and
bonnets, and chignons; flies buzzing
around and biting them by day and by
night they could scarcely see anything
but Aies, until at last some were blinded
by them, and thus partly comforted by
not seeing them any more. They would
dream about flies as long as it was possi-
BILE to sleep at all on waking, the first
sound was the music of ten million flies,
steady and noisy as the chatter of a class
of girls just before the tapping of the
bell. Whenever two Egyptian girls
wanted to kiss each other fly was sure
to come in the way. Whenever tirta-
ton was carried on, and the young man
was about to say something very sweet,
fly brushed past and took it off the end
of his tongue. Oh, what unhappiness F!
1t makes one sigh to think of it.
We are more blessed than those an
cient Egyptians, but we see enough of
flies to know the tortures that must have
been suffered from them. Who has not
been walked at sunrise by fly that want
ed to make friends with him, crawling
delicately over his hands and face and
neck, gazing into his ear, as if it were
picture gallery or u set of Madame Jar
ley's wax figures, then suddenly buzzing
off 70 alight upon his nose? The sleeper
awakes, but the sunlight has no beauty
for him Just then, and he tosses his head
to the other side to enjoy the rest Of the
happy dreams which had been so rudely
interrupted. But. under mistaken idea
of devotion, the active fly "sticketh closer
than brother" and crawleth to the Sec
ond picture gallery, with the intention
of buzzing again to the guileless nose;
then firts off in time to escape the cor
dial slap that followed. Again the sleep
er awakes, but his dream is gone; and
he cannot say his morning prayers, be-
cause his frame of mind is too revengeful.
Opening his Bible, he reads of "the wick
ed flea whom no man pursueth," and
wonders why it was not written ''the
wicked fy'' instead of the wicked flea.
There are many different kinds of flies.
Cross-eyed people, who love to study
about strange things and delight in hard
words, give them host of names that
we girls cannot remember; names that
make us think about the Greek alphabet,
and the shorter catechism, and the Egyp-
tian hieroglyphics, because we do not
understand them very we'll. Common
names have been given to some kinds
though, for we all know of house-flies,
blue-bottle flies, sand-hies, horsc-ilies,
yellow-hies, shoo-hics and time-fies.
Of all these kinds, the last is the one
about which we hear most. The name
that the cross-eyed people give it is
"Tempus fugit;" l know this name, be-
cause heard my teacher say it, and then
call out "Time-hies." I looked around
to see where they we're; but as did not
see them, they must be very small, and
very swift when they are passing. Even
their buzzing cannot be heard, and they
do not bite; yet they seem to be the very
WOTSL VI dll HIS, VI 1V ASt'1o uAS 3 Sio"H
people think so, if the girls do not.
Whenever we want to sleep late on Sum
day morning our mothers wake us just at
the wrong moment, talk about time-fies,
and say the church-bell is ringing
Whenever we are drawing pictures upon
our states, the teacher scowls at us, talks
about tinle-fies, and asks if we know the
arithmetic lesson. Whenever our older
sisters have young gentlemen in the par
lor with them, they speak in a great hur-
~ about time-fies, and tell US to go to
bed; but they never say word about
suck insects to the young gentlemen:
Our fathers always seem uneasy, and
book at their watches, and whisper about
time-hies during the sermon at church.
Somehow they never do so at the dinner
table, it is always the house-flles, or the
shoo-hies, that they want to drive away
then.
have never known school girls to talk
about me-fies, yet they do talk about
great many odd things. 1t is always the
grown people who seem to be troubled
about these insect creatures, while we
ourselves cannot perceive them. There
fore, timc-Hies must be like getting mar
ried one must be grown up before it is
IL,