Morning journal and courier., 1880-06-25
The Hunting of the Moth.


 It is at this pleasant spring time season of the year, when the May blossoms are giving rich promise of the buds of June, when the voice of the turtle is heard in the land and the song of the summer birds is growing louder as they swing northward cheerily after their winter in the south, when the mop and the water-bucket pervade all wel-regulated homes, when the carpets are coming up with the early peas and when oysters and ulsters simultaneously are going into retreat-it is at this blithe period of the middle spring time that lovely woman fills up her cup and fills up her can with some sort of insect extermi- nator, leads out her horses and calls up her men, as it were, and gaily gangs free upon her annual hunting of the moth.
 In this exciting chase in which she every year engages with so much enthusiasm love- ly woman takes no account of time, nor does she at all consider place or circumstance. All the ardor of her being is aroused at the mere mention of moth, and when moth actually comes into sight earthly power can pacify her or restrain her from pursuing it not only over such physical barriers as ta- bles and chairs, but also over the moral bar riers set by the rules of propriety and decor um. Were she content to hunt the moth in the privacy of her closet, or to limit her pur- suit of it in the drawing-room to that early period of the day before canonical calling hours begin, her eccentric performances would be personal affair with which the public would have nothing to do and to which newspaper criticism could not be properly applied, a matter lying between herself and her conscience and wholly independent of the rights and privileges of her fellow beings in the world But her Diana-ike propensity seems to be altogether uncomfortable, no matter what may be her surroundings, when she ''puts up'' moth. In the midst of serious conversation, in the midst of uproar- ious mirth while the martial blast ofthe piano forte rings out with melodious violence, while the air is quivering with the dulcet sweetness of impasSioned song-in every season that the conventions of society hold delicate to repose, lovely woman is not to be restrained from giving utterance to the semi-apologetic exclamation 'sOh There's a moth!' and straightway dashing off in full pursuit of the graceless lepidopter; thus wrecking the seri- ous conversation, checking instantly the wholesome outburst of merriment, breaking in upon the concord of sweet sounds and put ting stop, generally, to whatever may be going on. Nor is it possible to convince love- ly woman that the violent interruptions caus- ed by her intense eagerness in moth hunting are in any wise unseemly or to be condemn ed. With that refreshing simplicity and di- rectness of purpose which is the dear crea- ture's most engaging characteristic, she ar- gues that the moth is a malicious insect, wholly given over to sinful, predatory hab- its, and that to slaughter 1t on sight is to render acceptable service to mankind at large. You may talk to the sweet thing all day, showing her exclusively that even when her slippers and silk stockings are. of the most ap- proved sort her caperings around the room after moth always are senseless and fre- quently are rude, and when your argument is ended she will only smile afably and main unconvinced. And if occasion offers, she will fall to hunting the moth then and there.
 And does lovely woman ever catch the moth Well, that is rather delicate ques- tion. Personally, we have devoted a good many years of observing the phenomena of moth-hunting as it is conducted by the gentle sex and we must confess that never yet have we known moth. hunt to end in a manner that the most ll-tempered moth could object to. Our observation is to the effect that the moth highly enjoys the whole performance being at heart merry little insect, full of activity and with an intensely keen apprecia- tion of practical joke. That he regards the tricks which he plays upon lovely woman as practical jokes of the most Imaginable descrip- tion does not for 8 moment admit of doubt. His view of the chase seems to be that it amuses her and does not hurt him and is rather good fun all around This is the re- suit, as we say, of our own personal investi- gation but we have been assured by many of heavens best gifts to man that the number of moths captured and slaughtered annually by each individual lovely woman fairly rivals the tens of thousands slain by the late King David. Contradiction, of course, is impossi- ble, and we can only feel a mild regret, tenn pered by gentle surprise, that our experien- ces have been uniformly in the nature of ex- captions to this alleged general rule and in dreamy way we remember that the wife of Ananias was named Sapphira.