Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1897-08-25

This Is a mosquito year. The people who
complained about that long spell of wet
weather with which the summer began
probably did not realize that it was CIV
ing other reasons for discomfort than
the mere trouble of going to and fro in
what seemed to be the beginning of a Sec
ond flood. but as a matter of fact every
one of those wet days was adding to the
hordes of mosquitoes which little later
would come to vex them. If one reads
what the encyclopedia has to say about
mosquitoes he will find that they come
from sheets of still water where they
breed, so the connection between rainy
weather and the clouds of the little pests
which make humanity miserable in the
following pleasant days Is at once appar-
ent. We jewellers in New England are
likely to be under the impression that
the mosquito is a pest peculiar to warm
weather in the temperate zone and a
necessary evil all the year round in trop-
ical countries. 1t may therefore be a
surprise to know that countries which
are popularity supposed to be of almost
Arctic cold are not exempt from the
singing and biting insects. In JohnsOn's
encyclopedia we read, for instance, that
the distress that these insects create is
very great not only in hot countries but
in some cold ones like Lapland and Lab
rador." The female mosquitoes are the
chief torments of mankind. for they
alone do the biting, thrusting into the
flesh their awl-like bristles, masscd to-
gether into tube through which they
draw the blood. If you try to give battle
to the mosquito you are likely to find the
remedy worse than the disease You
may sit in the dense. binding smoke of
that kind of fire described as smudge
or you may smear your person with va
rious decoctions of tar. pennyrOyal and
feverfew. They will not, however, en-
tirely protect you from the attacks of
the insects for the kind of mosquito
which Is loose in the land on these sum-
~
man who is spending the summer in the
country was heard to say the other day
that the mosquitoes gnawed through the
ordinary mosquito netting as easily as
they sailed through the air and as for
wire screens, he said that the moSQui-
toes out his way were so large that the
sound of their footsteps on the wire win
dow screens kept him awake at night.
The fact that the female mosquitoes do
most of the harassing of suffering hui
mainly may account for the fact that the
times they take to be the most trouble
some are the portions of the twenty-f0ur
hours when the masculine half of human
ity seeks repose from the cares of a busy
world. 1t Is said that lovely woman can,
when she wants to do so, be far more
disagreeable than a man. The lady mos
quitoes give additional proof of this.
During the day, like Brer Rabbit, they
lay low. But when the householder, tired
with his days work. seeks a season OF
quiet on the piazza of his summer home
before going to bed, the horde of the hum
cry mosquitoes descend upon him and
make life SO unbearable that he is glad
to beat retreat.The they leave him in
peace until the beams of the rising sun
peep in his chamber window. 1t is the
time when sleep is the sweetest and the
feminine mosquito seems to he fully
aware of the fact for then she begins
again her deadly work and until nearly
breakfast tim0she feasts on the awak-
'ened mortal. Having eaten her own
breakfast the mosquito again leaves her
victim who sinks to sleep just in time to
to his own breakfast falls UNDECIDED on
his ears and he finally arises SO late that
he has to bolt the morning meal and hus-
tie for town and business, out Of sorts
and uncomfortable. Still he has hopes of
that warm dry wind will put an end to
the ravages Of the insects for a time at
least.