The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-07-07
CH1GaERs AND DEGENERATION.

"How does it happen" writes an old
subscriber Of the Eagle, "that we hear
so much Of the chigger of late. Is it
not your belief that thr chigser has al
ways existed in Kansas: And if so,
why is it not mentioned by the old
pioneers, in their numerous accounts
of pioneer life? Does not the fact that
they were seemingly ignorant Of the
existence of this beast denote q de-
generacy of the western race that
amounts to effeminacy"
This is a pertinent question. Other
questions before the world are tenta-
| tive and fugative. The chigger is not.
He is reality. He is reality with
teeth and a thirst for blood. The sill
yer question may. through the shifting
expediency Of policy and kaleidoscope
mutation Of men and conditions pass
away without contest. The tariff
proposition may succumb to senility
and crumble before another campaign.
| The government ownership of rail
roads and prohibition may come up
missing, but the chigger is here, cud-
died up on the bank of an artery, fish
ing out the molecules in the stream of
the blood that is propelled by the
| heart.
Now, the absence Of any mention Of
the chigger in the biographies Of Wild
| Bill, Kit Carson and John Brown does
certainly show that effeminacy is creep
ing over the KanSan. We are not the
same people we We're once. There are
thousands OF men in Kansas today
off by q bear, men whom Kit Carson
would not have deigned to notice.
There are hundreds of men in Kansas
today, too, who are not covered with
armor-plate freckles clear to their
heels, whom Wild Bill would have shot
down as an unnecessary cumbrance on
the crust Of the earth.
The pioneer was a man born of
woman with the finishing touches put
on by the sun, the wind and the rain.
He had skin that he whetted his knife
and razor on. Although the pioneers
make no mention Of the chigger, the
chigger was undoubtedly here at the
time. 1t does not take a superior
imagination TO picture n young and
inexperienced chigger walking up to a
pioneer and sizing him up for noon
day meal. Imagine the gay, light
hearted chigger prancing up the leg
of Kit Carson and stalking out n claim
on his calf. Imagine with what in
finite self-asSurance that chigger would
set to work. and in a few minutes try
TO dig his fangs into the callous per-
sonality of Kit. Imagine that chigger
crawl down that leg and scoot across
the prairie with bleeding, mangled
mouth and rest his teeth by gnawing
on piece Of granite rock.
That Is why the pioneers Of Kansas
said nothing of the chigger. They
didn't know the chigger existed. The
pioneer was a man. Chiggers. mos
quitos, bed-bugs nor coyotes disturbed
him. When he retired to rest nothing
but a grizzly bear or mountain lion
coming into his cottage and grabbing
him by the left leg and pulling him
across the prairie for mile or two
would cause him To protest
That was the EanSan thirty years
ago. Look at the Kansan today.
See him get up In the middle of the
night and hoist his leg on top the
bureau and stick salt water. carbolic
acid. vaseline, ammonia and kerosine
on his lumpy leg and snort and whoop
and howl and profane against the at
tacks Of an animal so small. 50 pusilani
nous that our fathers did not dream
Of its existence.
Degeneration and efeminacy. Oh,
no.