The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1885-05-09
THE HUMAN MOSQUITO.
A Creature Which Exists But to
Torment.
How He Wounds and Tortures his Hap
less victims-The Different Varieties
of the Species-A Possible Rea-
son for his Existence.


son for his Existence.
He is ubiquitous; and, taking him
morally, he has solved the problem of
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 shrill dis
cordance of his challenge rouses you to
attention and the vain attempt at de-
tense 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 a 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 adieu to peace
for so long as this creature is within
hail. He never lets drop 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 CULVER, 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. Tivisectionp Are
there not men who would vivisect for
the mere love of torturing, and the
brutal curiosity of seeing the victim s
behavior under painp 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-
NADIA, 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 othersp 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 YETI and is that SEN
tence of outlawry rescindedp and what
q grief it must be to you that one who
promised so we'll when he was lad
should have kicked over the traces to
such an extent as he has done Did
your daughter run off with the penniless
Lieutenant. and are you VIGOROUSLY un-
reconciled to the marriage-hopeless
as is your displeasurep 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-call 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
appointment, the human mosquito de-
velops 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 set your teeth on edge,
hampered as you are in all your goings
and comings. Or, if it be the other
way, and you have been the favored
and the rightful heir has been dispos-
sessed, then does the tormentor regale
you with narrowing accounts of the dis
graced ones trials and perjury, and the
bitterness of his disappointment, which
clings to him like Nessus shirt, poison
ing the very current of his blood.
Not to be successfully fought, not
to be captured, not to be barred out,
this tormentor of mems lives is as ter
rible as are those germs which float in
the air and bring woe illimitable to all
who breathe them. Your only chance
with him is impenetrable reserve; wrap
ping yourself up in silence which moth
ing can cause to break into confidence
or self-betrayal; showing a demeanor as
stolid as . triple wall Of brass; sulfo-
eating your feelings, your very thoughts
as though they we're crimes which would
land you in the county Jail if repeated
aloud. This is your only chance the
sole kind Of mosquito-net which will pro-
tect you. No appeal to reason will be
successful; still less will have chance
of an appeal to feeling, humanity, graf
itude. OF gratitude, indeed, he has no
more knowledge than he has of the orr
gin of life or the cause of capitalization;
foS ingfatitude is his characteristic, as
with some kinds-insolence is the
method. Like the brute which turns
and rends the hand that has fed him,
this kind Of creature, this human mos
quito, turns against you, when you
have done ali for him that he de-
sired and when he has no more
hope Of your help. Then you learn the
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