St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1885-06-13
THE HUMAN MOSQUITO.
A Creature Which Exists But to
Torment.
How He Wounds ana Tortures his Hap
less Victims-The Different Varieties
of the Species-A Possible Rea-
son for his Existence.

He is ubiquitous; and. taking him
morally. he has solved the problem ol
perpetual motion; for he is never quiet,
never tranquil, and as for letting well
or his fellow-creatures alone, he does
that as little as he pays the national
debt. Like his chronological proto.
type. the human mosquito has various
methods of attack. Now he comes on
you silly, without note of warning pre-
facing attack, and the first proof of his
presence-a sting: now the shrilI dis
cordance OF his challenge rouses you to
attention and the vain attempt at de-
fense and retaliation. For YOU can not
defend yourself nor yet retaliate. The
human mosquito is too subtle in his at
tack to be evaded, too quick in his re-
treat to be caught; and your hands only
fight the air, when they do not fall, like
boomerangs. with sounding blow on
your own pate.
The life's business of the human
mosquito is to wound, and his mildest
pleasure is to annoy. Woe to you. poor
hapless wight, if, in a weak moment.
you have allowed the tormentor to find
out your sore places or discover the
secret of the weak joint in your armor.
Henceforth you may bid aleu- to peace
hail. He never lets drop a subject which
he knows is painful; and when he has
once been able to make you vince, he
never wearies of repeating the expert
ment. 1t is such fun to him to see your
lip quiver, your cheek blanch, your eyes
flash with Unsurpassed fury, if you are
a man-with voiceless scorn or darken-
ing tears, if you are a woman--such
fun! He would not forego that pleasure
for worlds, life. indeed. having no
greater to bestow. Fivisection? Are
there not men who would vivisect for
the mere love of torturing, and the
brutal curiosity of seeing the victims
behavior under pain? So in like man
ner does the human mosquito torment
and torture you for the mere love of
the sport and to make you dance to
his piping. shod in, the red-hot shoes of
the German fairy tale, is as exquisite
a delight to him as were the
cries of the racked hereto to Torque-
mada. as are the fiuttering agonies
of the wounded bird to the snake. Has
YOUR favorite son proved failure, with
passages in his history you would
rather not remember, still less have
remembered by otherse The human
mosquito never meets you without ask
ing carefully after young Graceless-
where is he-what is he doing-and has
he paid his debts yet? and is that SEN
tence of outlawry rescinded? and what
a grief it must be to you that one who
promised so well when he was lad
should have kicked over the traces to
such an extent as he has done! Did
YOUR daughter run of with the penniless
Lieutenant, and are you notoriously un-
reconciled to- the marriage-hopeless
as is your displeasure7 The human
MOSQUITO takes every opportunity of
speaking in your presence of the regi-
ment to which your unwelcome son-in-
law belongs; and though he can not tell
YOU personally, does tell your neighbor
in your hearing, where it is, what
it IS doing, and how this officer
and that have distinguished themselves
and been rewarded, your undesirable
connection being conspicuously absent
from the roll-cal1 of merit. If your old
aunt has died and left you nothing,
while she favored your cousin and made
him her heir, to your not unnatural DIS
anpointment, the human mosquito de-
veIons the most extraordinary interest
in that cousins doings, and either asks
YOU of his well-being under his new
honors. or gives you anecdotes OF the
splendor of his surroundings and the
astounding luxury Of his home-anec
dotes which get your teeth e, .a on EOS eags,
hampered as yon are II 81 - your ,ha go,hgr ,hgr
wav and yon have been the favored
and the righful heir has been dispos-
sessed. then does the .tormentor regale
you with narrowing accounts OF the dis
graced ones trials and penny, ana the
bitterness of his disappointment which
clings to him like Nessus shirt, poison
ing the very current Of his blood.