The evening world., 1894-09-03
TOO DRY FOR FLEAS.
Messrs Pule1 & 90. Desert the
Beaches and Come to Town.
Their Jumping Habits Are Being
EmuIated by All Classes.
MillioBsires and Yellow Dogs Are
Equally Delicate Morsels.

The feas that have ravaged Harlem,
Brooklyn and other parts OF the greater
New York the past week have de-
scended upon the city TO its very heart
1t must be confessed. No consideration
OF pride or commercial greed should
oppose widespread admission of the
visitation. New York Is In u state of
plague. or siege, or whatever may be
the best way to put 1t, from fieas. Let
all the world, then, that objects to fieas
! put up rigid quarantine, and put it
up high. as this particular flea Is a
jumper of power and development.
The first intimation that was received
Of the impending pest was small and
feeble complaint from Harlem about
week ago. Then THE Evening World'
was forciDly drawn, three days ago, to
consider the leaping, biting plague of
East New York.
The swarms were spreading evidently
more from the Brooklyn nucleus than
from Harlem stock, which seems to
have been drawn sporadically and va
GRAVITY from some small mysterious
source that has nothing to do with the
present supply.
Brooklyn may be fairly considered as
the nesting place Of this fea-Brooklyn
and its environs-for 1t probably came
from the sands of New Utrecht and
Grayesend.
The wicked flea, when no man pur-
sueth, is daisy of Industry, without
any particular reverence for Labor
Day. He never suspends business.
He chooses his location in the rosy
dawn the blazing noontide, the dewy
eve and the dark and slumbrous night,
sos circles of the sun in every year.
He is not particular about the forma-
ton upon which he sinks, as he has II
milling process that makes low-grade
and refractory ores as rich In returns
as a bonanza pocket. He prowls through
wastes of rags and cultivated fields of
cambria alike, with d happy indiffer-
strike pay gravel whether the vein is
rolling rich In ceramels and ice cream
or is drift from, a fountain-head of
der infant In the cradle and the tough
tramp yellow dog are all one and the
. same to him.
Pulex of the order Aphamptera.' is the
way that Noah Webster describes him
In his family, relations, and continuing.
the same authority says:
"F'leas are destitute of wings-mais II
arrive tout de meme but have the
rover of leapng energetcally-nine-ba bar
fences are as straw in his path. The
bite is poisonous 70 most persons; The
human flea, abundant In Europe, Is not
known in America. where the dog flea
takes Its place"
This last remark shows that there Is
a limit to the wisdom # even a diction-
airy VT. The flea that has just settled
upon me metropolis Is a human flea.
to judge him either by his face and fea-
lures or the habitat that he chooses
He Is also the log flea on the same
grounds. There isn't any difference. He
Is one and the same, whether he Is max
ing Towser try to tear his ear off with
his best hind foot or Is driving Towser' $
master to language that imperils his
soul
The cause and source of the present
visitation are not yet clearly defined,
but will doubtless be fully explained
when the scientific mind takes cogniz-
ance of 1t. Many people say that the
long drought has driven the fieas from
the parched sands of the neghboring
beaches to seek sustenance elsewhere,