Year: 1876

Beelzebub, Prince of the Powers of the
Air, is we'll known to be the King of
Flies, and that explains the devilish disposi-
ton of those insects. The prophet Daniel,
who was a great man, called Beelzebub
''Bel," for short, and thus showed proper
contempt for the miserable fiend. Daniel,
we know. could get along with the lions in
their den, but the flies evidently bothered
him and if q prophet could feel their tor
ments it is not singular that such sinners as
ourselves should suffer. Flies are certainly
next to mosquitoes, the principal evils of
summer.


census of the flies has not yet been
taken, owing to the expense to the govern
ment and to the disgraceful deficiency of our
system of arithmetic It is thought, however,
that there are in New York city alone up
ward of 5,0OO 900, 600, ,OO0 600 600, 600, OOO 600
full grown flies, exclusive of ancient chief
underestimate, but few billions more
or less make no practical difference. 1t
is enough that there are too many The
vitality of fly is wonderful. Benjamin
franklin says that if you put a fly
in q bottle of wine, cork him up and keep
him for a hundred years, and then open the
bottle he will come out insensibly drunk !;
but that put in the sun, he will revive and
make direct line for your ear We have
not yet tried this experiment, but know that
Franklin must be right The fly is the most
faithful of all creatures. Dogs desert their
masters and horses try to run away, but the
fly always returns to US. Leaving your nos
trils or the left corner of your eye, fly will
appear to forget your existence; but his
fidelity is greatly abused. He will soar
around the room buzz on the window pane,
fight with his rivals and coquet with his
female acquaintances; but when you expect
it least the same fly will suddenly return to
the same spot This is especially the case
in the early morning, when you wish to
sleep Then is the favorite time of the fly
to show his agility and to compel the slum-
berer to rival the quickness of his move
ments. Hyenas and tigers can be tanned,
parrots can be educated to watch over in
fants and cats to suckle mice; but
the fly is faithful to the instincts
of his race. One of the best of the
dramatists of Queen Elizabeths era, wish
ing to give an idea of perfectly wild
nature, could only say that it was as "un-
tamable as flies" What could be more ex-
pressive? Educated feas are common, but
an educated fly is an unknown creature.
They do not need education, for they know
too much already. They have eyes and in
tellect enough to make a trysting place Of
the point Of your nose, a bridal chamber of
your ear and battle ground of your whole
head. Flies are particularly fond of heads
which are hairless, but we have yet to learn
of a bald-headed man who did not regard
fly with rage.


There are many kinds of flies-the green
fly, the blue-tailed fly, the gilded fly, the
butterfly, the dragon fly the swamp Ay the
horse fly and the Spanish fly but the worst
of oil flies is the common fly That is the
fly which is the pest of all nations We may
say of it MS Hamlet said of death, SAY,
madam, it is common" and with the same
deep regret. This was the kind of fly which
Uncle Toby caught and put out Of the win
dow, saying, ''Go, poor creature; there is
room enough in the world for both you and
me-" But Uncle Toby was wrong There is
not my room in the world for fly and
man at once. The philanthropy of Sterne is
notoriously false and sentimental, and this
was one Of the lines which on his deathbed
he would have wished to blot The Ro-
mans expressed the miserics of fly time in
the words ''tcmpus .f,tga;' and, with greater
experience than they, the "shoo fly" to us
is the noblest fly of all.