The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1882-08-25
The House Fly,
ITS CAREER AND UsEs-A GOOD WORD
FOR A NUISANCE.


The house fly is one of the most useful
of domestic appendages in the hot season.
and, at the same time, one of the most an
nOying. Where there Is the most of dirt,
there 1t is that the flies do most thickly
c~Ongregate, and thus they vindicate, to the
philosophic observer, their true character
rs scavengers, and therefore benefactors tn
human kind. The amount of disease
breeding filth destroyed by the myriad
armies of summer mHscid0 more than COM
pensates for the mischief they do, the I'M
easiness they occasion, or the torture they
infict in the animal kingdom. We some
times wish the Creator in His wisdom had
invented some other mode of cleaning the
world than by means of these pesky little
pests. Perhaps their enjoyment, and not
our convenience, was the primal cause of
their position in one of the links of the
scale of sreation. There is no doubt that
meditative flies complain, and ave a right
to complain, of divine providence for at
taching such brutal appendages as switches
to the caudal vertebre of cows and horses
to interfere 80 seriously with their pas
ture privileges on the hides of these ami
mails. To the insect world, fly, mosquito,
louise, bedbug, mans body is a vast CONT
nent, fertile in good things to the fly cs-
pecially 1t offers "a paradise of enjoyment.
Fhe unsophisticated musca doubtless Won
dcrs why, when he settles to regale him
self on the sweets hat exhale from the
animal surface, like the odors of frying
steak from a cook-shop, he is rudely Jos
tied from his expected repast by an earth
quake shake, or a ~Tesounding whack that
would annihilate dozens of the fly family,
if they do not skip aside, l~ightning-like,
on the wind of the descending blow.
ub,plyg tn hfg A nln taI.oa,ntg ayau the
house fly cannot be approached from any
direction without his perceiving it. To
him, as well-as to many other tribes of
fellow-insects, light and warmth are ire
sistible attractions, and to each and all glass
il a wonderful puzzle. The consistency
with which winged insects, flies, butter
iles, bees and other tribes will butt them
selves, again and again, against a window
pane in their mad efforts to escape the
house, proves that, while they have power
of perception, they possess very little rea-
son. The window and the ceiling are tn-
yorite resorts of the fly, where he prone
nades ut pleasure in defiance of the laws
of gravitation. Microscopists give various
reasons, drawn from the structure of the
hy's foot, why he is thus able to cling Sc
curely to the surface with his body hang
ing downward. 1t is one of those things
of which II man or an elephant can form
no conception, any more than why a fish
can live under water, or why an insect can
dash himself over aud over against Il wall
or a crystal pane -nharmed.
The fly eats dirt, and makes dirt, but
his personal habits are Cleanly. You may
see him in moments of leisure, when hun
ger is satisfied and there is no sport forward,
sitting by himself brushing and pluming
his wings, with his flexible hinder feet
with rs much ease and assiduity us n dan
dy combs his locks! He is terribly dis
tressed when he gets into the mOlasses or
butter or tar. That he hates to get his
plumage wet is evidenced by the unerring
instinct which sends him driving into the
house when barometrical changes in the
atmosphere indicate the approach of a
shower. Flies like good living they hum
when the meals are served as well as the
summer boarder, and they flock to the
dining-room ut meal hour without the
summons of gong or bell. 1t is useless TO
Shoot them away. Driven from one end
of the table they swarm 70 the other. The
best way to be freed from their annoyance
Mt the table is to feed them. Arrange u side
board for them, on which n little moist
sugar is spread, and leave them to their
meal undisturbed, and they will cease to
disturb you, in unmanageabls droves at
least.
Darkening n house to rid it of flies is
only getting quit of one evil by adopting
another, shutting out the pleasant, ~life-giv-
ing light. Netting and wire screens over
windows and doors are tolerably effective
guards, particularly to the sick room. The
bed of n well man needs no such protec-
ton. When the flies begin to tickle his
nose, it is light and time to get up. For
the head of n bald man, the sides of COW,
or the legs of a horse, there are no human
protectives against the well-nigh purgator-
ial torments of hungry flies. 1t has been
recommended to battle the bare scalE in
camphor spirits, penny-royal water, or
some decotion that is offensive TO flies, for
they have their autipathies in the herbal
kingdom as well as man. The relief is
only temporary. The fluid quickly evap-
CRATES, and the interchangeable battalions re-
turn with redoubled zest to the charge.
Water in which walnut leaves have been
stepped has been recommended MS an anti
fly wash for the legs of Il horse, but this
also, on account of rapid evaporation, re-
quires constant application, so that any
thing of the kind, however effective for
the moment, becomes impracticable in
use. There is no remedy but natures, to
stamp and 1irt the switch, sometimes bob
bed in obedience to what suffering horses
must regard as n cruel fashion. To suffer
ing woman the filth of the fly is more an
noyi ing than his stings and suction, vulgar
ly called bites He loves white paper,
n white cloth, n white ceiling, and, above
all things, to bask in the sun on n window
pane. He leaves hone of these things as
white and clean as he finds them. Bunch
es of asparagus hung up about an infested
Kitchen or di~nning-room become favor
lite roosting-places of these house plaques,
especially in the fall of the year, when the
cold begins to chill them and their brief
summer reign is over. One of the advan-
tages of the north temperate zone is that
there are eight months in the year in
which we do not "a to fight flies. Ia
summer il is good exercise for those who
are too lazy to take any other. Nothing
is so ridiculously helpless rs n public speak
er, a preacher, for instance, in the most
passionate or pathetic periods, paving the
air as n mad bull paws the dirt, in the
vain effort to rid his countenance of a
bothersome fly.
Lawrence Sterne, desiring to exhibit a
perfect specimen of patience and kindness,
pictures Uncle Toby catching a great bot
tie fly that had buzzed about his nose all
dinner-time, taking the captive insect to n
window, raising the sash and gently set
ting him free GO, poor DEVIL will not
harm thee the world is wide enough for
thee and me- That will do for mn isolot-