Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-09-02
MANY-EYED MONSTERS.
And They Sleep With Their Feet Up
Yet Not Upon Their Backs.

anu Ahey steep Win Tne1F Feet I'd,
Yet Not Upon Their Backs.
From the Boston Herald.
"Oh, these detestable f1iesr' exclaimed the
neat housewife. and the poor little insect
which was buzzing away on her clean win
dow was speedily killed with a weapon
made Of a newspaper rolled into a ball at
one end, with the other forming the handle.
1t did the work for the fly and did not
break the window.
Where in the world do they come from ?
Screens at every window and every door in
the house. How do they get in?''
"Confound that fly" growled old Bald
head, as he tried to get his forty winks'
after dinner in the darkened and quiet
best parlor. Seems as If when there
wasn't but one fly in the house it always
lighted on my head. There! take that"
And he made a desperate lunge at the
little tormentor. only to miss him and see
him fly calmly away with a meditative and
exasperating hum.
Still growing old Baldhead put a paper
over his head. and thus outwitting the fly.
It is Enthusiastically fly time. The almanac
tells us SO. and to the bucolic mind 1T must
be so II the almanac says so.''
One knows 1t Is a fact. for they can be
| seen swarming In pyramids near every
garbage heap. In the markets. round the
sweets exposed to view in the confection-
ers'; yes, can even be found ''in my lady q
chamber" which Is very apt to disturb
her siumbers and arouse her, as would the
lark. at peep Of dawn (say about $3.50 a.m.),
not with a sweet, melodious CALL but with
| a persistent buzz and by crawling over her
| fair face In such a teasing manner that
sleep Is eftectually banished for the time.
The question where flies come from is
| asked many times during the summer. II
| Is always a mystery to the woman who
| has her house well screened how even one
bA 20 tn
The parents Of good many of them were
probably housed the year before, when, in
| the autumn. vigilance was relaxed, and
perhaps a door or window left unguarded.
With the instinct with which nature has
| provided them they crept into the warm
| house. into cracks not perceptible, and there
| they hibernated There. too, they lay their
eggs, III to each fly, thus looking out for
| the propagation Of the race: and so. when
| the first warm days come they surprise us
by buzzing away on the windows or around
| the table.
| In the meantime the eggs are Matching
| and by fly time" they come forth in
Sometimes in the dead Of winter a fly will
appear. beguiled from his resting place by
| the deceptive warmth Of the furnace-heated
| house. He seems a harbinger of spring, and
| perhaps one may be inclined to pet it a bit
| Don't do it. XIII 1t and thus put an end tc
1 prospective future generation Of flies
They are natural scavengers. Their pur'
| pose in life Is to consume various sub
| stances which are thrown off from the hui
man body, by articles of food and by almost
every animal and vegetable production when
| in a state Of change. These substances are
| given out in such small quantities that they
| are imperceptible to common observers and
not removable by ordinary methods of clean
liness even in the best kept rooms.
| When a fly persists in crawling ovel
| ones face 1t Is merely taking care Of tn,
| particles of dead matter thrown of
| through the pores, and which help to keel
| the complexion clean. So it is really doing
good while 1t annoys.
| AS a common fly has about 1900 eyes, 4
| is no wonder 1t is SO hard 10 catch, or tina
| It eyades the blows aimed at it.