Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1890-07-01
THE WICKED FLEA.
How He Bites and Makes Miserable the
European Traveller.

How He Bites and Makes Miserable the
European Traveller.
Almost everybody likes TO travel for the
purpose of seeing new and strange sights
at least almost every person thinks he would
IKE to visit places he has never seen. He
does not know whether he would like it or
not until he has tried it
Almost everybody meet would like to so
10 Europe, and this is especially true of young
people. The Imagination works up very
lively programme, which is filled up with uD-
alleged pleasure. No allowance is made fer
any miscarriages, none for great fatigur,
none for the lack of accustomed comforts and
luxuries, none for unexpected set backs and
difficulties
The average small boy or girl would say
that he preferred three meals day for
week of very sweet cake TO the same number
of repasts of oatmeal porridge; but he would
change his mind before the week was out
When | went out TO ride in the country
around Constantinople big flock of quails
was always flying ahead of the carriage, and
the Palace of the Sweet Waters seemed to be
in a cloud of these birds. At the hotel it was
quail at every meal till | hated the sight of
them; and since that l have never cared to
Eat them.
do not intend 10 give list of the annoy
ances one encounters i'll foreign travel Ii
may seem incredible TO my young friends that
50 insignificant an insect as the wicked flea
can seriously interfere with so grand an
achievement as tour abroad. do not inn
agine that | haxs suffered more than the av-
erage traveller in Spain, Italy and some other
countries, though my skin may be thinner
than that of most of them; but look upon
the flea as have seen him magnified on a
white surface by the lenses of the scientist
To me he is bigger than an elephant, and it
seems as though the bite of a crocodile would
be pleasant compared with that of the blood
thirsty insect This monster has not only
kept me awake all night when needed sleep,
but he has made me writhe and squirm all
day. | really believe the fieas in Italy and
Spain are more to be dreaded than the ban
litti of those countries.
Spain and Italy are not alone in subiecting
the traveller to the torture of the wicked flea.
Even in the far north, where ice and snow
dominate the year, the festive flea has a resi-
dence. One night / went TO bed, tired out
after hard days work, sight seeing, in a
hotel in Christiania, in Norway. soon found
that could not go to sleep, sleepy as | was
I thought had an attack of hives or rash or
that had captured the itch in some steamer
or hotel.
lay in torment till l heard clock strike
the midnight hour. Then | became desperate
and leaped from the bed. | lighted my two
candles, determined to ascertain what the
matter was. l could find nothing ON my
skin that looked like scabies, and then with
candle i'll each hand l examined the bed Il
was swarming with very large sized, blue
black flea; and l had learned by experience
that this sort was particularly wicked.
| took my corn broom and brushed them
out of the bed and tried again to sleep, ex-
pecting TO have my bones picked clean be-
fore morning, though | was to be calesi at s
to take steamer | Struggled in vain for
another hour, an then got up again
brushed the r.Jnsters all out again and this
tlGiG las careful that no part of the bed
clothes should drop down to the floor This
succeeded. At any rate, was 50 exhausted
that at last | went to sleep.
| was called in two hours: and in what con-
dition was / to appreciate the scenery of the
Christiania Fjiord! As soon as the steamer
was in the Skager Rack | went to sleep That
night had my battle and defeat at the teeth
of the red armored knights of my berth in a
hutte.
In Holland one night was bitten one mil
wicked did not count them, but | esti-
mated them. Walking through the Circus of
Maxentius, in Rome, | snelled pennyroyal
had heard that this herb was an antidote
for the wicked flea, as it is for black flies
and mosquitoes. | gathered a considerable
quantity of it; but | did not actually suffer
from the depredations of the terrible mon
ster in Italy.
In Burgos, in Spain, after looking over the
magnificent cathedral and CHANGING at the
bones of the Cid and his wife, our party of
three took carriage at the hotel to visit the
tomb of the Cid, six or seven miles from the
city. The vehicle was a tumble down old
hack. A kind of cloth with a nap TO it had
been used to piece out the worn out lining. |
wore long boots, and in few minutes the
armies of the wicked flea began to attack me
by making an advance on my legs.
There was no road to the convent that con-
tains the tomb, and the old carriage bounced
over rocks, sometimes a foot high, and we
were pitched from one side to the other of
the interior and into the laps of each other
We laughed at the bumps we got and should
have had lively time of it if the fieas had
not spoiled all the fun. We writhed and
squirmed as though we were bitten by snakes
In spite of his prowess and the supernatural
aid he received in his mighty victories, |
doubt if tue Cid Campeador could have CON
quered the army that beset our party.
Twisting about and pirouetting like a
French dancing master, Hooked at the tomb
but did not take much interest in it, AT
the hotel l brushed the fleas out of the inside
of my clothes and applied cologne to the skin,
and it was very refreshing. Then | put an
abundance of pennyroyal in my garments
/ was all right till took in new stock in
Madrid. They worried and tortured my
companions and myself beyond endurance. /
obtained a bottle of flea powder at the CAPT
tai, which was of some service, but | still
gard the wicked f1eas as one of the scourges
of travel-Oliver Optic in Philadelphia
Times.