Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1890-01-29
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 20
TO Europe, and this is especially true of young
people. The imagination works up very
lively programme, which is filled up with I'M
allowed pleasure. No allowance is made for
any miscarriages. none for great fatigue,
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 a 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 l went out to ride in the country
around Constantinople big flock of quails
was always fl wing ahead of the carriage, and
the Palace of the,Sweet Waters seemed to be
III cloud of these birds. At the hotel it was
quail at every meal till / hated the sight OF
them; and since that I have never cared to
eat them.
do not intend to give a list of the annoy
ances one encoun.ers in foreign travel. 1t
may seem incredible to my young friends that
so insignificant an insect as the wicked flea
can seriously interfere with so grand an
achievement as a tour abroad. do not inn
agme that l have 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 I have seen him magnifed 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. l really believe the fleas in Italy and
Spain are more to be dreaded than the BAN
ditti of those countries
Spain and Italy are not alone in subjecting
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 resi-
dence One night l went to bed, tired out
after hard days work, sight seeing, in
hotel in Chrstiania, in Norway. soon found
that could not 20 to sleep, sleepy as l was.
| thought had an attack of hives rash, or
that had captured the itch in some steamer
or hotel.
lay in torment till l heard a clock strike
the midnight hour. Then became desperate
and leaped from the bed. l 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 a
candle in each hand l examined the bed. II
was swarming with very large sized, blue,
black fea 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 called at 5
to take a steamer. 1 struggled in vain for
another hour, and then got up again. l
brushed the monsters all out again, and this
time was careful that no part of the bed
clothes should drop down to the floor. This
succeeded. At any rate, was so exhausted
that at last l went to sleep.
I was called in two hours: and in what con-
dition was l to appreciate the scenery of the
Christiania Fjiordl 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 arnlored knights of my berth in a
hutte
In Holland one night I was bitten one mil
lion times by another kind of flea, hardly less
wicked | did not count them, but l esti
mated them. Walking through the Circus of
Maxentius in Rome, l srnelled pennyroyal.
| had heard that this herb was an antidote
for the wicked flea, as it is for black flies
and mosquitoes. l 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
cathedral and CHANGING at the
bones of the Cid and his wife, our party of
three took a 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 nap to it had
been used to piece out the worn out lining. l
wore long boots, and in a few minutes the
armies of the wicked flea began to attack me
Dy 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 a lively time of it if the feas had
not spoiled all the fun. We writhed and
squirrned as though we were bitten by snakes.
In spite of his prowess and the supernatural
aid he received in his mighty victories,
doubt if the Cid Campeador could have con-
Cuered the army that beset our party.
Twisting about and pirouecting like a
French dancing master, Hooked at the tomb,
but did not take much interest in it. At
the hotel brushed the deas 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 a new stock in
Madrid. They worried and tortured my
companions aud myself beyond endurance. /
obtained bottle of flea powder at the CAPT
tai, which was of some service, but still re-
gard tine wicked feas as one of he scourges
of uayel-Onver Optic in Philadelphia
Times .-- ,ls5a--
A Turning Question.
am curious TO know what II Is that makes
l,-o o~riS- worth S1Dnl1 and a