Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-07-12
There Is No Kissing Bug.

! The whole thing is a hoax, started by
| Washington when there was scarcity
of real news, and swallowed by the
gullible public as many hoax has
| been before and will be hereafter.
The Washington boys started the yarn
as hot weather joke to relieve the
tedium of a summer with no Congress
| journalism did the rest. Pictures of
the mysterious bug have been pub
lished, and telegraphic dispatches have
told of its serious, and occasionally
| fatal, ravages. And now the truth Is
out, and the public will have to laugh
away it's discontinue at having been
| fooled again. -
A Washington correspondent of the
Pittsburg Dispatch tells the origin of
the kissing bug, but probably the ex-
posture of the hoax will travel neither
as far nor as fast as the hoax itself,
and many people will continue to live
in mortal terror of the winged occula-
tor. There will be many people, how
ever, who will now declare that they
knew all along it was fake and that
they never took any stock in the
melanolestes picipes. The sale of ham,
mocks will now proceed to boom, and
timid females will have nothing worse
than a man to fear when they look un
der the bed at night.
1t was in the early part of June that
the wonderful creature was first heard
of. At that time many complaints were
made to the police department of
Washington, by colored women, that
big colored man had stopped them on
lonely streets at night and kissed them.
In some instances the compliments
said that the ruffian had bitten them
on the mouth or cheek. The police
tried hard to catch the colOred man.
but were unsuccessful. The policemen
were worried, for the complaints con-
| llHutu, anu lIc newspaper iiiCH anu
others began to make fun of the police
department. At length, as a teaser for
the officers, the theory was offered that
the kissing of the dusky damsels was,
not done by a human being at all, but
by a bug. This notion being duly dis
cussed in newspaper row, ii was de-
cided to invent the kissing bug. a new
chronological terror. and have a little
fun with it during the hot spell.
OF course, it was necessary to invent
a scientific name for the bug. and a
Greek invented the name melanolestes
picipes. The vicious work of the bug
was first tried on the country, through
some of the journals most susceptible
to fakes and it took immensely. 1t
made a hit as warm weather story.
and was received in many quarters
with serious belief. A few days later
the news was that it had been found to
be the melanoleStes. This clinched the
| STORY anu IL was DtlltNcu dIlIloSl every
where, except by really scientific men,
who knew that there was no such an
insect No one could have been more
astonished than the newspaper men of
Washington who started the yarn
when they saw reports of the appear
ance of the kissing bug in the more
| oil tp
the hospitals almost daily. Here was
singular feature of the affair 1t
was, of course, most singular to the
gentlemen who knew that there was no
such thing as the kissing bug. 1t be-
gan to appear like something else than
simply a hot-weather joke. Pictures
of the creature We're published in sew
eral of the Eastern papers. These pict-
ures represent a genuine bug, which
is as harmless as dragon fly, but as
dangerous looking, and they gave
many persons the hot tremors, only to
look at them.
1t was an unexpectedly successful
dCy " IilSHtStL p-IS oIS tiit
hot weather and cause sleepless nights.
The name melanolestes, which the news
paper men created, is from two Greek
words, meaning BLACK bandit" 1t is
) not word used in entomology, but it
was good one for the occasion. To
be sure, it did not do much good to
have a kissing bug without also haying
victims. This was nat hard point
' There are insects which bite people
spiders and mosquitoes for example
and persons can always be found With
, sore and swollen lips, and it, is not
& hard for a newspaper man to exagger-
ate the swelling and make it any size
desirable. The victims presented tC
the reading public by the originators OF
| the yarn in Washington were unknown
= and perhaps fictitious colored persons
j The story being well established in the
& & &l~