The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-08-17
A COck-ROach Farm
and other
Summer Stories.


The crops are a failure and lard times
stare US in the face, but that doesn't
phase the Rhamkai-
RAISING ter. Hes as full OF
BED BUGS resources as Ca
FOR MARKET madam thistle Is of
down, and thereby
hangs the tale that I'm now about to tell
you.It was told to me by the Old Codger,
and know it must be true.
THE cock-roach you know, is 5lat-
lid orthopterous insect, comomnly known
as the Blatta orientalis. He is the
natural enemy of the bed-bug. You didn't
know that; but certain shrewd Rham-
katter found it out, and what do You
suppose he did,
Disguised himself as a bear and went
to Pullen Park" guessed the Observer
of Men and Affairs, and the Old Codger
gave him whitening look.
Give it up!" quickly exclaimed their
Youthful Companion, anxious to restore
amicable relations and hear the story.
why, this Teller I'm a tellin' yer about
continued the Old Codger, ixnor-
ing the interruption, has es-
tablished cock-roach farm and
he proposes to raise the varmints for
market. Those who have tried them say
the Blatta orientalis as bug de-
stroyer beats quicksilver, or turpentine
or kerosene all holler; and it certainly
sounds more aristocratic. This particu-
lar Rhamkatter that Th tellin' yer
about has four very large reaches that
he has carefully trained in bug hunting.
They all have large and interesting
, families and reside en- his bed, one in Il
little hole in each post They live en-
irplv bod hiluc o,rt ,;o1,f
On hunting excursions. Sometimes they
Bring in large strings of game and then
again there are nights when there is lit
tie doing.
The small bed bug, or Cimex lectu-
larius, is considered a great delicacy in
the household of his roachship. They are
tender and white. almost to transparency
and not SO highly perfumed as their
older fellow bugs. They are usually
served like sardines-feathers and ALL
But when they have attained their full
size, which they do in eleven weeks, their
three jointed proboscis has to be removed
and the carcass baked basted or boiled
Well, as l was saying, continued the
Old COdger, when this Rhamkatter dis
covered the value of the Batta orientalis
as hunter and destroyer of the Cimex
Aectularius, he at once set to work to
establish a cock-roach farm and supply
the market. To this end he secured the
best breed of hunting reaches obtainable
and is now raising them in large guam
titles and at ridculously low prices.
Speaking of the bed bug reminds us to
say we note with regret that Bob Deal,
the presiding genius
FOUL PLOT of the Wilkesboro
is Chronicle, is either
UNEARTIIED malicious or envious.
Which, we shall not
at present undertake to say. preferring
athcr to let him choose for himself the
horn of this dilemma that he must sit
upon. X & "
Recently we made the discovery that
athes Mosquito .transmits germs, SUCH as
love, fever and malaria. injecting them
at will into her victim For this discov-
cry we modestly claim absolute and un-
divided credit, and consequently we have
viewed with pride the endorsement this
theory has called forth from distinguish
ed physicians, noted scientists and the
crowned heads of Europe, to say nothing
of the resolution of thanks sent us by
the Amalgamated Association of Mosqui-
toes recently held at Ocracoke,
1t IS therefore with genuine sorrow
that we discover one whose talents are.
worthy of better cause, making an eff
fort to snatch the wreath from the Mos
5quit0's brow, to say nothing of our own
and place it upon that of the Bed-bug.
AS authority for his position in this mat
ter, Mr. Deal quotes one DR.. Hodgson as
saying that Bed-bug dissemnates
germs as naturally as sprinkling-c cart
scatters water Neither the scientific
hypothesis nor the result of actual ex-
periments upon which such conclusion
can be based are given, and evidently
these enviQus detractors of the Mosquito
feel this for Editor Deal as if not quite
sure of his ground, adds:
The Mosquito injects all kinds of
germs, both day and night, and the Bed
bug fills UP the vacancies with multi
plicity of microbes and baccilli in the
Silly hours, "
In this softer note we detect a spirit
compromise, holding out of the olive
branch. as it were. But we Indignantly
spurn it. We decline any sort of COM
promise by which a single leaf or flower
in the wreath we have placed upon the
Mosquitoes head shall go to the Uranium
of the Bed-bug 1t may be true, as Bro.
Deal triumphantly reminds us in his con-
Guiding remarks, that though
The Bed-bu has no wings at all,
He gets there just the same"
But that is no reason for our surrender
of matter of principle The fact that
the Mosquito scars on airy pinions above
the sordid things of this world, while the
bug is a creeping crawling thing,
only goes to prove our point.
1t is but Justice to ourselves to say that
II was with the greatest reluctance that
we have brought
HEIR WORK yourselves to refer to
WILL LIVE this matter; but a
AFTER THEM lofty conception of
public duty and
high sense Of justice compelled us to
speak out when we discovered SO foul
an attempt to deprive an active and en-
ergetic citizen, as the Mosquito as rni-
versaly acknowledged to be. of the ro-
sition in history that by right belongs to.
her -
The fame and importance of the Bed
bug can be but temporary. In fact, the
success of the eceksroach farm Iii Rham4
katie means the total humiliation OF
fha race. But the historian of the future
will find in searching the records re