The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-11-27

FLIES BY THE BARREL.
A Peculiar Industry in Fly Catching
as ExempiIncd in st. Louis.


From the st. Louis Post-Dispatch.
What funny things we see when we are
not supplied with ammunition!
Who ever heard of a man catching flies
for a living?
Who ever heard of men digging ants
eggs out of the ground by the barrel?
When those of us who were boys were
boys at school we used to catch flies as a
diversion from the arduous labors imposed
upon us by the conscientious schoolma' am,
even at the risk of having our Jackets
warmed after repeated warnings to desist,
but never during all that time did we
learn that flies were good to eat and that
the catching and drying of them was a
regularly organized industry i'm certain
quarters of this mundane sphere.
On Saturdays we used to HE ourselves
away to the bosom of the virgin forest and
there commune with nature to the extent
of disporting ourselves in the waters of
the old swimming hole and angling in vain
for fish that refused to be caught.
On such occasions our attention was call
ed to the ant, for whose industry King
Solomon had a kind word in the olden
days and we used to watch the little in
sects "toting' their eggs to market or
it was quite a study
If we ran across a party of woodchop-
pers-and when did we not?-
our attention was drawn to the
| ferocious black ant, which can
bite like a serpent and sting like an
adder and we would see its big white eggs,
about a quarter of an inch long. and watch
the ants carrying them away, as they
chased around like the proverbial chicken
| with its head off.
| But even then our school lore-even the
high school lore. on which young hopefuls
| do feed and grow exceedingly fat and wise
| did not teach us the fact that ant eggs
are what some people call good eatin', T"
| and that hundreds of men make a living
| by gathering them and placing them on
| the market.
| How woefully ignorant we have been all
| these years!
| 1t simply goes to show that we can't
| know 1t all, in spite Of the varied and vo-
| luminous knowledge we gathered prior to
| that period when our "only books were
/ Womans books" with the consequent de-
| plorable result depicted by the poet.
| If you are the owner of a hooking bird
| or a gold fish or a chameleon, which you
wear chained to your manly or womanly,
| but erratic, bosom, much to the consterna-
| ton of your nerve-cracked friends you
| have probably had occasion to call on j.
| H. Wehrmann. 1.-THE old bird man. on
| South Sixth street, for the purpose OF buy
| ing food for your pet.
\ You may have been startled the first time
| at these offers, but il you were curious
| enough to inquire you learned that both
| are very common articles of diet for inn
prisoned birds and reptiles, and that they
4 are imported to this country by the bar
\ rel.
| The flies are obtained from Mexico. They
/ in, he in
the country and the individual insect is
| called the moscos. 1t is small and delicate
| much more delicate than that omnivor-
| Gus scavenger the common housefy-and
| it's whole body has the appearance Of hav-
| ing been gilded. In life II must be beauti-
| full. 1t is perfectly harmless The flies
swarm by the thousands and millions and
| are captured in silken nets by men wac
| make 1t their business. Great quantities
! of them are cured or dried In the City
/ Of Mexico and other towns further east.
/ Most Of them that are shipped to the
| United States come through Laredo, Tex.
| They are packed and sold by the barrel.
Mr.. Wehrmann usually buys them in ten
| barrel lots and retails them in small
| quantities. You can get large envelope
about half full for 10 cents and from this
| you can judge that barrelful of them
| must cost pretty penny.
| The ants egss are brought from Ger
many, mainly from a point near Ham
burg In the Black Forest lives a monster
ant. and the eggs are deposited in the
ground in such numbers that when a
nest is uncovered It is just like digging in
| to a wheat bin where the egg hunters
commence work with their shovels.
After being dried they are packed in
barrels and shipped to the different parts
OF the~world by the firms engaged in the
business The supply for this country Is
distributed through New York.
Now, II somebody will only start a flea
catching industry, or a bedbug brigade
we will not only be wiser, but happier.