Smyrna times., 1881-07-27
In Fly Time.

DOuDlleSS IL WOULD DC impossible, even |
if it were desirable, to say anything new |
about the house-fly recently arrived and |
now buzzing on the pane. 1t has pretty |
much all been said Said in all languages, |
and largely i'll profane. The fly must |
have been discussed more or less in the
Sanskrit, Coptic and Syriac, besides hav-
ing his character and habits dissected in |
cuneitOrm by the early photographers. |
There was time when the Egyptians
must have had Il good deal to say about
him; when he fluttered on the surface of
all conversation and was the prevailing
scum ON cverybody's soup; when, in the
! fgurative speech of the baseball field,
the lsraelites would have 'gone out on
the fly if Pharoah hadn't ''fumbled" and
''muffed"; when there was no rest for the
tails of the sacred bulls in the Memphian
temples, and the hOtel-keepers in Goshen
were advertising, No flies here this sea-
son. Hebrews only invited" No doubt
they discussed the fly with great energy
in Egypt that season. The vocabulary of
ejaculatOry profanity must have been
greatly expanded and enlarged in the
progress of time by the simple, unaided
efforts of this earnest, untiring bird. For
there are crises i'll every mans life when
he seems to pass the point where existing
forms of expression seem adequate, and in
a great and stOnny burst of emotion he
Wreaks himself upon the vernacular and
adds fOrceful idiom to the mother tongue,
More often than any other bird the
common house-fy goads the carnal man
to this creative impulse. In this regard
his equal cannot be found in the entire
range of ornithology. 1t is barely posi-
bic that the bird with teeth which Pro-
fessor Marsh discovered in the Rocky
Mountains and endowed with a composite
Greek name as long as an elephants tusk
might have had habits which made life a
burden to the early man whose society he
trequented, but we can hardly imagine
the Odontornithos arOusing the Troglodyte
from his matutinal slumbers by alighting
| on his nose and buzzing into his counte-
nance the trite uninteresting announce
ment that it is sunrise, and the first bell
: has just rung. No bird except the house
fly does that. Fancy a decent and re-
spectacle fOwl-say the ostrich-doing that
sort of thing, and then, when his Internal
purpose is accomplished, retiring to his
perch an the bed-pOst, before you can get
whack at him, to sharpen his fore-paws
and wait for you to get to sleep again.
$ Did the ostrich have the exasperating
habits of the fly, he would be extermi-
t mated. He would not be tolerated even
n in circus. The ostrich, to be sure, is
larger than the fly, but the principle holds
It good: why should we tolerate in the fly
:. what we should resent with double.
c barrel!ed gun iii the ostrich? The truth
is, we are too tolerant of the fly 1t has
|, often been remarked, but we take leave
to repeat it here and now, as being in
e season, the fly is altogether too familiar or
e short acquaintance. He is as fond O
r sugar as a Stalwart, and he sticks and file,
j. away, and qQlNes back and pairs off, and il
1t as hard to put your finger on as Senator
II Forster.
d And we are now just in the vestibule o
1t the fly season. We are at the middle O
July, but the fly has only just embarked
Il upon his midsummer career. Now h.
+. winks at us from behind the cubes of on
rs sugar, or filings himself in playful gym
1T nastics upon the ebon huckleberry. Al
re ready he begins to skate on the butte
es dish and lave his fore-foot in the ink
stand; he will presently infest the cream
I'd pot and plunge madly into the soup
rs Then come the dOg-days and he prevail
IN everywhere. Then one experienced fl
in bed chamber will do the business {
ne several muezzins, though he wakes tn
ne sleepers to anything but prayer; and
~ family that keeps fly will have no us
n. for an alarm-clock. Then with the con
% ing of dawn's roseate hues, the suddenl
lg awakened head of the family will wildl
M fling his hand across his nose and So
IN things he will he sorry for, while the flu
re tering bird that woke him sits on the pi
low taking dry wash and musing owe
al the utter depravity of mankind. Sue
are the days that are coming; such tn
}, experiences in store. And for the ne1
weeks at least we may be sure that to NJ
nj Mallock's earnest question as life wort
lie living?" the human family will unan
mously respond, "Not in fiy-time. ~
Y Tribune
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