Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1885-03-12
Some Mosquitoes.
A Florid Description Of One OF the
Pests of New Orleans.

ing somewhat ford in his language,
has returned from a brief trip to New
Orleans.
'How did you enjoy yourself at the
New Orleans Exposition p asked
George Stecketee.
The exposition is grand. Every
body ought to go and see it. l liked
it very much. The saloons are sup
erb, and the eating is the best | ever
had. I just lived on gumbo soup
while I was there, but there is one
drawback.
what is that p
The mosquitoes. They are the
worst I ever saw. You get into all
kinds of trouble until you get used
to them. They even stop the street
cars replied Parson Hickman.
Now look here. That's coming it
just little too strong. Pve heard OF
grasshoppers being so numerous as to
stop railroad trains, but draw the
line at grasshoppers. Nobody, not
even if he is q clergyman, can make
me believe that mosquitoes can stop
the street cars.
They do it all the same. You see
the mosquitoes attack people on the
streets: The pedestrians, of course,
are compelled to defend themselves.
They strike at the mosquitoes with
their hands or try to shooh them a
way with handkerchiefs, or they
would be eaten up. The people on
the sidewalks are kept so busy with
their handkerchieves and making mo-
tions with their hands, that the driv-
ers are deceived, and stop the cars ev-
cry few yards, thinking that the peo-
pie on the sidewalks are hailing the
cars to get on board. A conductor is
bounced if he dosen't stop q car as
soon as he is signalled. 1t took a car
I was in half an hour to make one
block. Most of the passengers got
out and walked. That's the way the
mosquitoes stop the cars. Of course,
I didn't mean that the mosquitoes
lifted tie cars off the track.
We'll, that's something new to me-
That's nothing. You know Hen
~ Tours. He was in New Orleans
when I was there. He got himself
into peck of trouble on account of
the mosquitoes. He was in the hands
Of doctor for three days, and he
walks on crutches yet. You. know
what a lady IS man he is, and how po-
lite he is to the fair sex ? Well, the
very day he got there lady on the
street waved her handkerchief across
the street. Henry Immediately went
up and began to converse. She hit
him q lively whack on the bridge of
his nose with her parasol and scream
ed. Her husband came out of cigar
store where he had been getting ci-
gar and falling upon Henry, nearly
telescoped him with his fist and boot.
The lady was only shaking her hand
kerchief to keep off the mosquitoes.
Almost every day some prominent
visitor from the North is taken to the
morgue on a shutter, all owing to the
mosquitoes There are several of
them. / tell you they are so quick
that q man with seventeen hands
could not keep them off,
'Parson, don't you exaggerate a lit
tie p
No, sir, not a bit. / should say
there were billions of them to the cub
ic inch. When I first got to New
Orleans, imagined that some very
exciting news had just been received.
/ saw groupes Of men who appeared
to be laboring under most terrible ex-
element. They were gesticulating
in most extravagant manner as if
they were on opposite sides in politics.
Inever saw such eloquence either on
the stage or in the pulpit. They
were really all on the most friendly
terms in the world, and were merely
frightening off the mosquitoes
DO they bite severely?'
They are very ravenous, indeed.
In tact they bleed stranger more
than the hotel and clearinghouse
keepers do
Can nothing be done to abate the
nuisance p
Every remedy has been tried, but
in vain. 1 heard before I left New
Orleans that the city authorities were
training pelicans to catch them, but l
don't dnow how that will work. I saw