The San Francisco call., 1899-07-23

!
The prevailing splutter and furry
over the kissing bug is a striking illus
tration of the old proverb I'VE always
see what we look for" The American
Union existed for more than hun
dred years, and in all that time no one
of the vast population within It's wide
| domain ever saw q kissing bug. Now,
in the height of the summer, which is
| so justly called "the silly season, there
| comes out of the East a story that
| kissing bug has made his appearance
| at the watering places along the At
| lantic coast, and all at once the crea-
ture appears simultaneously all over
the United States; and every commun-
| ity has Its thrilling tale to tell OF the
| terrors of the creatures kiss.
Is there any such thing as kissing
bug?
Lots of creatures Of various kinds and
sizes have been taken by various kinds
and sizes of people to various kinds and
sizes of entomoIogists, and each ento-
mologist has been assured by each vis-
itOr that his or her particular spec1-
men is the bug that does the kiss
| ing; and the entomologist has been gen
| erously Informed that if he would name
| it he could have it. In every case the
| creature thus submitted TO the investi-
CATION of science has been found to be
very old sort of thing. and in no case
has any scientist indorsed one as a kiss
| ing bug.
The sensation has not been anything
like so severe on this coast as in the
East. With us it is but q nightmare;
/ IL.
| Comparatively few bugs have been sus-
pected in California. but along the At
lantic coast all kinds of creatures have
| been arrested and charged with being
guilty of stinging kisses
In Philadelphia a story got around
that entomologists and the professors
of the Medical College would pay $40
apiece for the kissing bug. and for days
| thereafter it almost rained bugs on
every scientific man in town. 1t is said
| the insects Offered were of all varie-
ties, including such harmless and we'll
| known things as katydids, grasshOp-
pers and undeveloped butterflies.
To an interviewer, seeking informa-
tion on the subject, Mr.. Samuel Hem
shaw of the Agassiz Museum at Har
ward admitted that he didn't know any
| thing of the creature and could give
no information TO a public yearning for
! knowledge He said he had been asked
a great many questions regarding the
mysterious insect, and had examined
| several specimens of hOrsefiies pre-
sented to him for critical opinion" but
he had not found anything like the
kissing bug of the summer resort tales.
Professor Chope of the Field Museum
in Chicago has also had occasion to eX-
anime a varied selection of insects sent
in by a wild pOpulace, but he, like the
rest, has found no kissing bug. The
most frequently accused creature is the
bug bearing the learned name of Me-
lanolestes picipes, but Professor Fuchs,
entomologist of the California Academy
of Sciences, told writer for this paper
that to term that creature a kissing
bug '1s surely not right"
Thus from the Atlantic TO the Pa
cfic sea, science knows not the kissing
bug, and it is safe to bet he is no more
! than humbug.
Daniel F. Leary, who announces him
| self as a toiler in a mill, grinding ink
and paint, has found in the rhythmical
beat of the machinery and the melody
that sings through it's noises an inspi-
ration to poetry. He says: "A paint
| factory is not the best training camp
and yet there may exist an unseen tie
| between the grinding of printers ink
! and the grinding of verses; and if so,
thirty-five years at the paint grinders
art, with brain a swinging to the swing
of my mills, should place my mind in
| the majestic swing of the Pleiades,'
said by Mr. Markham to be beyond the
-
AS an evidence of his faith in the mill
muse he submits to the judgment IF
the public these verses
LOVE AMONG METAPHORS.
Birth is curve, love, and Death is its
mate;
And Life is the clause, love, that's held
at low rate;
And minor the key is; tbs rung in by Fate
This world would naught be without it.
Between these two curves, love, together
we two
So close to my heart would swing, sweet,
with you:
And your eyes would be heaven forever
IN view
Ny life, love, is worthless without you.
And Time is a sea. love. and Life is a
And Birth is the starter; the goal is the
grave.
IT'S mighty rough riding, this bilIow we
crave
The ride, love, is lonely without you.
And Hope is truant who swims all the
day;
With the last as the first, love, he's ripe
for the fray;
! And he'll keep on a-swimming till tho last
| fade away
But life would be fiat, love, without him.
| And Birth is gate, love, and Life Is the
| way;
And heaven playground, I've heard peo-
pie say;
And Death is the fee for admission we
pay
Your love would be pass-key without it.
Is Birth, too, bus, love? And Life is the
| inn
Where Revel and Riot go oft raise din.
| the lover