Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1901-10-24
A LIVELY TUSSLE.
Two Naval Officers in the Philippines
Have Fight With Wasps.

New York Press: Iieutenants Irwin
V. G. ellis and W. II. Gherardi both
of the United States steamship Annap-
oils stationed nj lloilo. Philippine Is
lands. doubtless have decided by this
time that they would prefer to meet an
enemy in human shape rather than to
do battle with a swarm OF winged foes
for both of the young men are nursing
innumerable wounds caused by angry
wasps.
Lieutenant ellis, who is n son of
Commodore Gillis, u. s. n, retired in
a recent letter wrote of their disagree
able and dangerous experience:
Il was out duck shooting at the north
end of the small island just south of
lloilo on June with some of our own
officers and some army officers. The
point we were shooting from was moth
ing more than a swamp muddy, with
tow or three feet OF water In places !
was standing quietly when suddenly !
heard a wasp and by the time he lit on
me and had brushed him of ! was
surrounded by them, and In much less
time than 1t takes to write ii was
covered with them. could not go
DuCk IHt way j tdiIft lDi lu'N N'i'
coming down that path, so tried to cut
across the swamp to where some of the
Others were. so they could help me, as
the swamp was not so deep but that Que
could walk around in IT, first reacb-
ed clump of bushes out in the swamp
where an officer had been shooting and
tried to cover myself up in them, but
il was no use, for the wasps were get
ting thicker and thicker. ! tried haul
ing my sweater up over my head, but
il was so covered with them that 1t
only made matters worse, and when
hauled it down again | confined lot
OF them between the sweater and I'M
dershirt BY this time ] was so tired
that ! was afraid to attempt going on
in the mud. although the others called
to me TO come on and get on solid
ground / tried this. but was so ex-
hausted and weak that ! fell down sew
eral times. and each time 1t took me
longer 10 regain my feet and when
got about twenty feet from sond
ground ! gave out entirely and could
not get on my feet but by craving on
my hands and knees "a foot or two
only at a timel | reached solid ground
and crawled into, or ] should say. SHOW
ed my head into thicket, and from
that time until ! was brought on board
the tug my ideas are rather dim. J was
perfectly happily and contenfed. and
wanted to go to sleep and be left alone.
When the rest OF the party reached
us flor Gherardi was almost az bad of
as | wasJ they dragged me out but ]
could not walk, so the natives got
hammock and carried me down To the
tug. / was in a bad way completely
exhausted. and my pulse very weak.
When got on board they fixed me up,
but the next day | had a high fever
G02.4 degrees) and was feeling rather
shaky. One sting pierced the eyelid
and scratched my eye so that ! had
trouble with it. Notwithstanding
some 200 or 300 or more stings. ! am
now O. X, but slightly pulled up.
This experience OF these two navy
officers suggests 10 military anthori-
ty the adyisability Of training wasps
and hornets and utilizing their pugna-
c,ous tendencies in martial achieve
ments He says.
we cannot conceive Of soldier
thinking OF everything, not even the
Articles OF War. when half dozen ac-
tive wasps are nibbling at him, and as
for being able TO sight his piece while a
familiar hornet Is delicately balancing
himself on the end ~ his nose. we do
not believe there is a soldier In the
regular army that can do II. with
wasps and hornets trained for battle
purposes we shall see them educated 10
distinguish between the uniforms Of
the coDtending forces and 10 reserve
their stings cntirely for the enemy
Nests can be sealed up, placed inside OF
a mortar and discharged In such way
as 10 break and discharge their buzzing
contents upon the unsuspecting enc
my"