The Washington times., 1894-11-07
BABYLON'S BLACK PEST,
An Anglers Account of the Mosquitoes in
the Long Island Marshes

QUAINT and picturesque is the half rural,
half maritime life of the BabyIonians down in
the Great South Bay" said the contempla-
tive angler. This town had to my eyes
something of the aspect OF Holland village
when went there, one sunny September Sun
day, to try my luck for bluefsh.
Between the sea and the tree-shaded cot
tages of the village the wide expanse of salt
marsh is divided by raised road leading to
the pier, from which paths lead to the scat
tered landings. Here and there among the
marsh grass lay blackened hulks of vessels
driven ashore in the storms of the last quar-
ter century and in deep inlets that cut the
marsh, invisible to the locker from the road
steam craft, sloops. and saiboats were
moored. When We returned from our fishing
late in the afternoon. about these stranded
hulks and floating craft the village lads
and lassies. and not a few older people. in
Sunday flnery. were strolling, passing to and
fro upon planks laid from the land to the
vessels, and wandering in and out of the
hulls and cabins as inland people might
make calls from house to house.
upon the marshes off TO the right some
men repairing boat were working amid the
smoke OF several fires they had built We
found out why they preferred to work in
smoke as soon as we started to walk from the
wharf to town. They came in q black cloud
noiseless. but oh how purposeful, those mos
quitoes of Babylon. They wasted no time in
preliminary lowering. but settled straight
way upon the hands, necks, faces of the
three strangers and fell at work, making
punctures so vicious that, to use the words of
Jeames Yellowplush, Flesh and blood
couldn't bear it, at least without making re-
marks.
,Vba RabyIopian rpOccuit0 10 oF n 5;s,;, ~
species. peculiar TO the locality. He is i'm
menso OF size, plump fluffy, perfectly black,
and hydrochloric acid is in his venom. A
swarm Of these insects about his head pro-
duce upon the wayfarer the impression OF a
flock of Dlackbirds with bills like snipe. The
mosquitoes that assailed US were not vocal
perhaps because the sun was shining brightly,
perhaps because they couldn't spare the lime
TO sing though one that got into my ear
made that kind of hideous racket that it
usually requires a boy, an empty tomato
can. and stone tied 10 a string TO produce
They were out for blood and they made the
most of their opportunity.
at was a weary and painful gauntlet that
we run in covering the quarter of mile of
board sidewalk across the marshes. and we
struck the village street bearing many sting
ing reminders of the trip. But once the
higher land and houses were reached, prestol
the pests had vanished and we saw them no
more. Their field of operation was the
marshes, and they did not propose to venture
beyond it.
'.But what mvstifTed us all during our tor
lures was the sublime indifference that the
townspeople strolling about the marshes dis
played in reference TO the pests that assailed
US so fercely. Seated upon rails and quarter
decks of the moored vessels, they Whitfield,
swung parasols jauntily, and laughed and
chatted III holiday enjoyment as if never a
mosquito had piped and punctured in Baby
Ion. Whether they had become inoculated
with the insects venom so that they no longer
regarded it, or whether the mosquito, like
the townspeople, looked upon the stranger
from Gotham as their natural prey and let
the native residents alone, must remain an
unsolved problem, for, in settling for boat
and horse hire and tavern keep, we were
soon fully occupied in meeting bills quite as
depicting as those which had been sent in so
vigorously by the mosquito"