The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1901-07-20
THE FLEA A REGULAR PIRATE.
Its Ferocity, Thirst for Blood and Aston
fishing Feats of Strength.

ishing Feats of Strength.
The flea possesses all the piratical
instincts--thirst for blood, rapacity,
cruelty. He is, further, as ingenious
in devising torments as he is untir-
ing in the torment Of his victims.
The flea is built upon lines that
make him forever hungry. But his
continuous performance appetite is far
from being the oldest thing about
him. Proportionately to size, he is the
Samson of the universe. If an ele-
plant had the same relative strength
he would come near to overseeing a
steel framed sky scraper.
A flea, wingess, with a body out Of
all proportion to his head, and all
over less than the 18th of an inch in
length, will leap upon a plane sur
face more than yard This, too,
when he has been Matched in hair, or
straw, or sand, and never known what
1t was to have a full meal. More mar
vellous still, he will spring perpen-
dicularly upward from one to two feet.
Fancy a man or boy standing fiat
footed and all of a sudden leaping
over a church spire.
Wonderful things have been done
with feas. They have been put into
gold collars and set to drag about
lengths Of gold chain at least 100 times
their own weight Further, an ingen-
ious goldsmith back in the leisurely
18th century made coach and four
in ivory and gold, with coachman
upon the box, position and outriders,
yet all so tidy it was dragged by q
pair of fieas, working in gold collars.
They worked under bell glass, and
were exhibited in London and Paris.
To fight like cats and dogs is the
synonym of COMMUNICATIVE, but even
cats and dogs do not hight so bitterly
as cat fleas and dog feas. Oddly
enough the cat fleas are bigger than
the dog tieas, so should be always vic
tors. But here as elsewhere condition
tells. If the cat fleas are lazy and
luxurious-fat they can never grow
the small, lean, keen beaked dog fleas
kill them out.
The combatants stand up to fight
quite like a pair Of prize ring orna-
ments. AS they have six legs they
have plenty to stand on and still spare
a couple with which to belabor each
other. Upon neutral ground, as floor
or walk, the cat and dog feas keep
the peace. But let one invade litter or
a coat sacred to the other, and there is
straightway fight to finish. Some
thing even more curious than this in
born antipathy is that dog fieas will
not live upon cat not cat fleas upon
a dog
Fleas lay eggs after the insect man
ner, which hatch out tiny wrigglers
very nearly invisible to the naked eye,
yet capable of feeding on moisture
and microbes-at least one judges that
to be the diet, since f1eas breed so
largely in sand, hair, straw and litter
where other food is lacking-and after
a while spinning themselves cocoons.
The cocoons are no bigger than tiny
grains of sand, but under the micro
scope show as semi-translucent ovals
beautifully banded with pink and
pearl. They are formed upon top of
the matrix, whatever it may be, where
the sun or the light can strike them
fair. Rain just at the Matching time
often kills a whole brood of sandfleas.
A f1ea's beak is sharp and hard,
something like a birds, only more
pointed. A fleabite is not poisonous,
save and except in rare cases where a
flea has previously been biting infect
ed tissue. Certain French scientists
have shown that both fleas and bed
bugs could thus carry tubercular in
lection. Further, rats and rat tieas
are greatly dreaded as helping to
spread the fearful bubonic plague
New York Sun.