The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1892-04-02
OVBRRUN BY LEECHES.
a Tenement Invaded by Hundreds
OF the Noisome Creatures.
Farms Whore tho squirming Vampires
Arc RAISED for Commercial Pur-
poses-How They Are Fed
49, and Captured.

People in the western addition have
slept soundly for years in ignorance of
The fact that at any moment plague
worse than the locusts Of Egypt might
some crawling into open windows and
under loosely-hung doors-a plague of
derce blood-hungry leeches.
There is an extensive leech farm on
Bush street, where ten thousand of the
sepulsive monsters are confined, await
ing purchasers. The farm is one of
two in the United States the other be-
ing in New York, and there at times
sifty Thousand leeches squirm cease
Iessly about, over and through swamp
muck, constantly searching for some
hap1ess animal that chance might have
snired down to furnish feast for the
insatiate annelid.
The leeches at the San Francisco
Sarm broke away the other night, says
She San Francisco Examiner, and over
spread the neighboring tenement in a
cry short time, Hundreds of them
s:rawled up the walls and tried every
window and crevice. But minority
found their way into the sleeping-rooms
chat number of snaky, greenish- black,
creepy worms suf6ced to terrify the
occupants almost into fits when they
felt the eager suction Of the leeches
and awoke to find themselves festooned
with the ugly products of the swampy
,,oze of Bordeaux.
The first to awaken was young lady,
and she was not long in announcing her
distress and arousing her fe]low-occu-
pants of the house, only to find that
each of them had for room companions
from a score to hundreds Of the leeches.
Brooms were savagely piled in every
corner and under every piece of furni-
euro. Bedclothing was shaken and
closely examined. Leech bites were
dressed with soothing applications, and
after several hours of activity the
household again settled down to rest.
Next morning an examination of the
premises and those adjacent was made,
and when the leech farm was discovered
seeches. t.
The worms are brought from France
where about Bordeaux there are wide
areas of black, light ooze, in which
leeches of the fercest sort multiply un-
S,tinted. The ooze fairly heaves with
their writings at the season! of the
year when they are most active, and
then one of the cruelest sights possible
nay be seen.
Old horses, worn out in faithful serv-
ice, are driven into the marshes and arc
soon covered with the hungry leeches,
which fasten to lips, eyelids, nose or
any other tender part, and hang on un-
III glutted with the life blood of their
victim, or until the wretched horse
weakens under the drain and falls to
sufocate in the slime of the leech mo-
rass.
When leeches are desired to send to
New York or San Francisco men are
hired whose poverty compels them to
accept any chance. The men walk
,are-legged into the borders of the
leech s,vamps and are Immediately COW
cred by the repulsive crawlers, but be-
lore they can more than pierce the skin
IF the men with their sharp semi-lunar
Seeth they are swept off into pouches,
from which they are counted out into
beds of wet moss and boxes of their ma
tive ooze, embedded in which they are
transported safely any distance.
The large leeches, such as those of
Japan, which reach two feet in length,
are not in common use, nor are certain
poisonous sorts, such as the small black
ieeches of Australia. The thick, fat
fierce worms of Hungary, Sicily and
France are preferred by practitioners
who use leeches, and it is from those
countries that the rest of the world is
supplied. The San Francisco leech
farm is formed by placing quantities of
she ooze Of the Bordeaux swamps, es-
pecially imported for the purpose, in
large boxes with tight covers. The
ieeches bore about through the muck
until wanted for sale, when they are
counted out, washed and disposed of,
ready to bite any living thing and hang
on until they are swollen to eight or
ten times their ordinary size. Then
they drop off and lie dormant until as
Sanitation shall have been finished and
hunger again arouses them.
FiREfLlES FROM CUBA.
Experimenting with tho Light They Give.