The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1882-10-06


and the last part of the description was
literally fulfilled; he came seeking whom
he might devour. In no form more than
in the guise of flea can Satan hope for
success in subverting the sanetities of
a church; and so it proved with Grace
Church in 1867. The first installment
of uneasy and distracted worshipers vss
noticed in the corner to the left of the
chancel The next Sunday abstractna
| gave way to distraction. the whole half
of the sanctuary on one side of the broad
aisle being infested The third SabbAh
nearly the entire edifiee was oferflin. ard
so grievous had the annoyances become
that the church was closed and the he-
roic remedy resorted to of reiiIovin O al
the cushions, tearing out all the CARPETS
andreplacing the entire fittings with new.
There is a divergence of opinion CON
cerning the conditions favorable to the
best development of the sand flea life and
activity. One man says that he. has seen
early wet season. while another affirlhS
that a wet season always brings the tleasj
From one authority it is learned that aeas
revel in hot weather, while another is
positive that flea can only do his level
A careful observer has ascertained
that our Normal Art School was first in-
tested with the sand flea some two years
ago, and in this light the only wonderis
that, if the thing were possible, the leg
islative Investigation was not more acrl'
monious than it really proved. But the
very climax of malignity is reached
when the wicked flea ensconces himself
in the luNuriant folds of the chair occu-
pied by legislative presiding officer.
He then becomes the well authenticated
emissary of the evil one, No one appre-
eiates better than the flea that "he who
doubts is damned, and he fixes his vic
tim so that he shall "doubt just at the
critical moment. What can be more
unfortunate than to compel a political
aspirant to ego hunting for fieas' Just
as he is balancing the nieeties of ne
vote? 1t has been asserted that the Ser
geat-at-Arnas of a certain western Leg
islature was bribed to pack-not a eau
cus-but the seats of certain leading
members with sand fieas, the whole
course of legislation being changed
thereby.
We learn from a surgeon i'll the army
of the Potomac that fle;ss never troubled
the troops in Virginia during the late
war, but from quartermaster, who
served in Florida, we gathered data both
instructive and amusing The troops
about Pensacola were oYeuun with the
multitudinous and tormentng pest. 1t ]
was ascertained that a sand flea cannot
jump higher than three feet. and that its
longitudinal feapinS capacity is about
the same. One method of circumvent-
ing the flea practiced blythe officers there 7
was TO strip stark and climb into elevated /
hunks, dOnning night clothes aloft. This
expedient was inadequate. They then
made immense cotton pillowcases. in /
which they buried themselves at night,
gathering the '.pucker so closely about /
the neck as to prove almost suffocating. |
But when, onenight, the qtlaFferHaster
had bagged himself up until he consid-
cred that a hermetical Joint had been
secured about his compressed throat.
and, despite those precautions, had been
driven out of night-bag by sixteen fieas
which somehow got in, he abandoned
the experiment and tried another. On
a white Government blanket drawn from
a vessel in the harbOr our quartermaster
could easily detect every flea; aud,
again, flea cannot Jump on blanket
with long, soft nap-for once a flea
was outwitted. The feas in the room
were driven upon this blanket and then
dumped into a pail of water. where they
could swim but not jump.
The Hungarian shepherds have an
infallible remedy for 4ieas;
and it is here commended to an aesthetic
generation. Those Hungarians of the.
pastoral crook simply out-Herod Herod.
They .'go one better than the fleas can
N the filth game. They grease their
bodies and the inside of their linen all
over with lard, and a week or two of
dusty 7accretiOnS encase them in an
armory impregnable to fleas. From
ittrniture dealers it is learned that costly
furniture has often been subjected to the
1aptha treatment. and this avails for the
buffalo bugs, which indulge in ravages
quite similar to those of the sand fleas,
md whose recent depredations about
Boston have driven distracted house
keepers to tear up carpets and resort to
very known expedient for extermina-
ion. In the interests of suffering pub
ic dozen of Boston prominent drug
yistS have been called upon in order TO
discover and publish the great flea spe-
life. But the results have been so |
dubious that it is safe to announce a still |
pen field to inventors, and to assure the I
Iappy genius who shall .'cut the corners
# the pestiferous flea that Edison fame I
nd Vanderbilt's fortune are as the small /
lust in the balance compared with the
moluments awaiting him, Boston Her I
Id.