St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-09-14
JERSEY SHELTERS oUTDoNE
The Fierce Culex of the British
NOpthWeSt--Its Terrible Power.

The Fierce Culex OF the British
Northwest--Its Terrible Power.
A writer in All the Year Round WV
idly describes his first encounter with
the culex. Never shall l forget my des-
perate battles with it, he says, but the
first encounter is the one most indelibly
marked on my memory, and on my
body; and even now, after many years,
is one of the salient points in a by no
means monotonous life.
Z Another youth and myself had
camped on little water prairie by the
Shuswap lake. Before turning in for
the night we made up mosquito fire. u
and after creeping within our respective
nets, we lit our pipes, knowing what
safety there was in smoke.
The freshly heaped on logs blazed
brightly, fiery red in the center, with
brilliant tongues of blue and purple
flame and thousands of glowing sparks
shooting high into the still air; while
clouds of smoke curled laZily upward in
tinted wreaths of gray till lost in the
gathering darkness. But the fire sank
and we got drowSy; and as l knocked
out the ashes of my last pipe and coiled
cozily to sleep, l heard what sounded
like the drOne of bagpipes approaching
over the distant horizon. 1t was the
coming culeX, and flying scout I'M
mediately scrambled through my mos
quito bar.
Softly it piped its wee war song, like
Lilliputian lullaby, while taking an
appetizing constitutional around its
prey. Not glimpse of it could | catch,
although the eXasperating singing
seemed sometimes close to my eyeballs.
1t came and went, rising and falling,
now at one ear, now at the other, round
behind my head and then down at my
feet. At last it suddenly ceased.
Lightly as shadow the ''bag piper'
had settled on my ear, and as L felt its
bite l cautiously prepared to bag" the
piper"
The moment for vengeance had ar
rived! Had it? 1t was stunning
blow, and l fancy have been slightly
deaf in that ear ever since, but the
agile insect skipped away unhurt and
resumed its war song triumphantly.
Then another of the advance guard
arrived and then squadron or two,
and then the whole army charged pell-
nell.
The net, as a Northwest mosquito
BAR" was failure, evidently made
lOI lCSS Sy ullluSblC llltl HlOlO ohi"piO
mosquitoes. Gnats skinned in without
touching the meshes, and the leading
culeX battaliOnS Just closed their wings
and folded up their legs and were hoist
ed through by the hosts behind. In
they shot, with cheerful hum, by brig
AIDES, while the symphony of the bag
pipes" outside grew still more savage.
Then a skunk arrived on the scene of
action. Not that the little beast could
be seen. But the immediate atmOs-
pheric shock was circumStantlal evil
dence sufficiently strong for anybody.
What words can describe the tOrlureS
| endured during that sultry summers
night-the tossing and the tumblmg and
the rolling to and fro, the tearing and
scratching? We made smoky fires of
resinOus spruce and were almost Stitied,
We smoked so much tobacco that we
felt ill. We scrubbed Ouselves with
brushes and tore ourselves with our
nails, and only made matters worse.
Then we held council of war and de-
cided to try to keep cool. But to treat
those myriads of demons with calmnesS,
under the circumstances, would have
taxed the philosophy of an archbishOd
Next morning when L looked III the
back of my watch-our only Hooking
wondering what manner of man l had
become. Even my Oldest creditor would
never have recognized those irregular
features. and the wife of my bosom
would have repudiated me as frightful
impOstor. My watchcaSe reflected a
cOuntenance like flaming full moon
overrun with volcanoes. Was the
PythagOrean doctrine true? And had
my soul escaped from a mOsquitO-killed
body into somebody else's? Was l now
the man in the moon? Was | mad or
inebriated with nicotine, and did L see
double? Double!
Why, there were four cheeks on the
left side and three on the right, two and
a half upper lips, five eyelids and hardly
any eyes, a nose and three-quarterS, and
ears all around the back of my head! At
all events, that is how appeared in the
back of my Natch-a most awful reflec-
ton! My lips kept getting into my
mouth, and my eyelids into the residue
of my eyes, while my disSipated nose
seemed to fall all over my face. My
skin felt red hot and as tight as roast
ing apples when about to burst, and
there was no doctor within 100 miles.
My elephantine ears put hair brushing
out of the question, and my knObOY
head was swollen many sizes too big for
my hat.
My companion was equally-or rather
unequally-altered one side of his
usually gOOd-looking face resembling
Joe Miller's, and the other that of con-
scientious hearse-driver. Having ne
appetite for breakfast we silently sat on
two opposite logs lugubriOusly contem-
plating one another. Then we laughed
till our enormous features expanded all
over our heads, and tears bounded down
our numerous cheeks; and when we
frowned fierce vengeance we looked, if
possible, still more ludicrOuSly foolish.