The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-05-27
CUSTAVE ECKSTEIN & CO.

I guess I can take care of them all right!
So 1t went that way.
SPY the time we had got past the
equator he saw he had made a mistake.
He didn't say much about it, and he didn't
have to- as there wasn't a man of us but
knew what to expect. The enemy had
got into our stores. They had begun on our
potatoes, turnips and carrots. In fact
they were everywhere. We had to in
spect and slft the -four regularly. The
number of traps was doubled and ell hands
were set to work with spankers made of a
square piece of leather attached to a
stick like great flywhackers. Capt.
Small was the first to call my attention
to the noise the cockroaches made, espe-
cially on hot nights We could detect
them gnawing and crunching away, and
by placing ones ear to one of the ventila-
tors one could hear them very clearly.
The days came along. one after anoth-
er, with the ceaseless task of fighting the
cockroaches before us. To give you an
idea of the way the trip dragged you may
know that We were twenty-nine days get
ting around Cape Horn-that is, from 50
degrees around TO 50 degrees on the Pa
cific side. Then, again, off Robinson Cru
soe's Island we drifted about for six
weeks. 1t was there we began to fear
the worst. We could not make a port
along there anywhere, as we were too
keep on our course.
Our water became affected and it did
no good to boil 1t. We kept on using
the traps, as many as we could handle
We had jars strung up to the dunnage
wood, with mola sses for baft as in the
tins. When a trap got filled we scalded
IL and turned the contents into barrels
and then emptied them In that way we
got some record of our work.
"When finally we got into San Fro DISCO
we had been out frcm Oct. 4, 1854 to
March 4. 1865. The news OF our experience
soon got abroad and people came down
to the wharf and wanted souvenirs Some
even brought boxes with them that they
might preserve a cockroach alive, and es-
pecially in demand were the white ones
When it came to overhauling the cargo
we found things in a rad state. Some of
the cases Of shoes had become asylums
for the insects, the cockroaches having
laid their eggs directly in the cracks of
the covers, so that the little cockroaches
were enabled to crawl inside. There they
subsisted on leather, imprisoned When
opened The boxed showed colonies still at
work or extinct. il the food supply had
been exhausted. The reaches ate into the
leather tinishings Of the four or five ba-
rouchescwe had aboard They also ate a
lot of star candles ard horn buttons and
Of oil clothes they w7re particularly fond.
lhe only way We COulu save the oil clothes
was to keep them packed away when not
in use and that, of course, was about the
worst treatment for them. as they got
very sticky when wadded up.
Capt. Small advertised an offer of $50
fer some chemical that would DESTROY the.
reaches. Everything presented failed. al
though one of the San Francisco chemists
MADE an outlay of over $50 in the attenot
We unloaded and made an Investigation
as TO the damage on the cargo. Had it
been shown that the insects came aboard
with the cargo we should not have been
held responsible for the damage As II
was clear that the reaches we had were
not natives Of Boston the only thing TO
do was TO pay.
I'VE sailed in ballast for the Chinohe
Islands and the captain swore for ven
geance We. had recovered while in mort
some Of our strerg and courage-sonna
had LOST thirty rounds on the tfip out-and
we pitched into the work OF extermina-
lion There was a much better ooDortun-
ity OF getting at the insects than before
and we had made great inroads on them
by the time we had reached the Islands
Capt Small there got his title of cock
roach The name never altogether desert
"a him We took on a cargo of puano
there. What few coekroaches had ESCAPED