The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-08-11
Xxx H%<<<<<%<%<%<%%~~
! The Norfolk Skeeter
and other
! Summer Stories.

the mosquito is Col Creecy, the vener-
able editor OF the
AN AUTHORITY Elizabeth City Econ
ON omist He was born
MOSoIrITOES and reared amid the
native swamps and
haunts of the skeeter and the galllnlpper'
and since his natal day he mas peen oA
Shaping acquaintance with them. ~ 10
therefore with peculiar pride thal me
editor of the News and observer hhu'
his mosquito article in last Sunday $ issue
thus commended and endorsed IN thls
weeks Economist:
HE discusses the whole question Win
such breadth of learning, and SUCH pro-
fundity of thought, that we are prompted
by pity to come to his rescue and 1urhlsh
him with practical lessons learned IN that
best of all schools, the school OF suIler-
ing and torture. Son Josephus describes
the little pest with an affiuence OF scien-
titic learning that would entitle him TO
the degree of l.. l.. d., if he had no other
claim to that honorable distinction. He
calls him a microscopic animal known as
the plasmodium malariae or hemamorbro-
vivax, which feeds upon the red corpuscies
of the blood. That definition would be
as Rev. Henry Ward Beecher once said in
the pulpit of his evangelical Plymouth
church in Brooklyn, on a very hot Sunday
in August We prefer with Joe's permits
sion, to disrobe him of the drapery of his
scientific verbage and call him in tersef
language simply mosquito, or ii his
learning is outraged by such humble pre-
tensions of scientific attainment we Will
add that though bird and not an ami
NAL as Joe calls him. we will say that
he has the most terrific weapon to poison
men with that we have ever known bird
to carry with him.
Then Col Creecy proceeds to a discus
| sion of ways and means, declaring that
formidable as he is
THE NORFOLK with weapons OF Of
SKEETER fensive warfare he
| IS FEROCIOUS. is not invincible. He
| designates the New
| Jersey bird as probably the most danger
| Gus fighter of all the tribe of warriors,
| but he thinks the Norfolk mosquito,
| though not so we'll known to fame, is his
| rival in size, bravery and ferocity. The
| characteristics of the last named skeeter
| he discusses at some length:
''The Norfolk bird is divided into three
| species-the gallinipper, the day mosquito
| and the night mosquito. The three togeth-
| er have had much to do with the forma-
| ton of the character of Norfoll's popu-
| lation. Norfolk is our neighbor and there
| fore we speak of it in terms OF neigh
| borIy kindness and friendship. In its
| existence of two hundred years it has
| produced but one really great man and il
| it desires not to repeat its history OF tWo
hundred years, it behooveS it to call a
mass meeting of its ablest citizens ana
| devise some remedy for the destruction
| of the mosquito pest or it Will be moi
| only the wickedest, as the census says
| but the most ignorant, city of its size
! in America.
"But to return to son Joe and ouI
'mouton we will give our system of
| strategy in this mos
| COL CREECY'S quito war, which may
| SYSTEM threaten the intel
| OF STRATEGY. lectuality of Raj
! eigh: Take a lump OF
| sponge about the size of a peach or you
NAV say two peaches. 1t will only cost
| ten cents, Saturate it with kerosene oil
or. better, with crude petroleum, which
will cost you about two and half cents
/ At night suspend it over your bed about
| six inches from your nose. When you &c
| to bed lay on your frontalpiece If your
| bird is of the Norfolk species 1t would
| be better to put your proboscis in nose
! cover of thick buckskin, likewise your
| hands. You had better sleep with youi
mouth open. You had better cover ul
your legs to the knees with double fold
of blankets, if there be any gallinippers
! about The buckskns that are used as
coverlets for the hands and mouth viii
| cost probably twenty five or maybe fifty
| cents. If your mosquitoes, when thus
equipped sing, as if to derGe you, you
may laugh back at them. This is the
strategy for the night attack In the
day, in the open air, you deserve deatf
by suckulation, if you do not beat then
| off with palm fan or the palm of your
| hands"
The news comes laundering up from
| Beaufort of terrible depredations of mos
quitoes ia that sec
SHELTERS t on, especial,
KILL around Haslin ant
THE CATTLE. Leechville, h e Re
y people have not beer
able to pillow their cotton on account o
them. The Washington Progress is IN
formed they killed ten head of sheep an'
two calves for Mr. W. B. Harris, on Bel
Island and thirteen head OF sheep 10
Mr.. Riley Harris, near Germanton, am
calf for Mr.. Willard Silverthorn, nea
the same place. The Progress learns ais
that Capt. Wilson Garish lost fine hors
which was craZed by them while hitche'
to the pillow. Mr. Frank Bishops hors
was crazed by them and ran away wit
the cart and severely wounded himself II
the shoulder.
The appearance of comprehensive vol
ume on Mosquitoes" by DR.. L. o. How
ard, of the Depart
A BOOK ALL ment of Agricultur
ABOUT at Washington,
| MOSQUITOES most timely. 1t tell
how mosquitoes live
how they carry disease and may be de
stroyed. DIR. Howard presents the cas-
against the mosquito in way that ca
| not fail to be impressive. The result
of his Investigations, extending over
| period of years, are set forth in his boob
He says the mosquito lays its egg nowher
4 n