The Kissing Humbug

THE KISSING HUMBUG

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PROF. STEERE TAKES NO STOCK IN THE KISSING BUG.

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Reminds Him of the Superstitions of the Filipinos and Brazilians Who Fear Insects.

Prof. J. B. Steere, when seen by the Daily Argus today, expressed the opinion that the kissing bug and the strangling bug were two humbugs. He said the superstitions concerning them strongly reminded him of the fears of the Filipinos or the natives of Brazil. They lived in deadly terror of harmless winged insects, while they stepped about among venomous snakes and reptiles without fear. He spoke of the lantern bug with a proboscis two inches long, an absolutely harmless insect, which the natives believed would kill by merely touching a man. Once in Brazil he found a couple of toads about double the size of any toads in this country. He gathered them up in his handkerchief and took them to his camp. When he opened the handkerchief and the Indiana saw what he had they all fled, Yet those same Indians had no fear of venomous snakes. Prof. Steere took no stock whatever in the kissing bug or the strangling bug. As said before he denominated them hum bugs. The Adrian Telegram telling more of the strangling bug says: "Our citizens need not be alarmed because the strangling bug, or "loose us naturally as the Times aptly called it has come to stay for no fatalities have yet resulted and the board of health apprehends none.

"Mrs. Charles Barret living opposite the St. Joseph academy was driving home the other evening, and while passiug under an electric light, felt one of these beastly beetles fasten itself to her throat. She didn't know it was a strangling bug, and so she didn't scream or jump out of the buggy, but sensibly attempted to remove the interloper. The bug manifested no inclination to move, but simply took hold farther around on the lady's throat. Mrs. Barret then drew up her shawl and held the strangler in one place until reaching home, when with assistance she removed it and placed it under a tumbler. Whenever she raised the tumbler the prisoner made a dive for her hand, so she didn't let him out for daily exercise around the room. "This all happened three days ago, and in process of time, being cruelly deprived of human blood, its natural food, this monster of the African desert passed away, just as Ingersoll thought he did - into nothingness "Tuesday Mr. and Mrs. Barret brought the bug to town as a curiosity, and lo! it was identical with the one caught by Frank Barnum. "Bert Hood also caught one of the new insects under the electric light in front of Peavey's Westside grocery. This is now on exhibition with strangler No. 1 in Sheldon's Windows, its talons being twice as long as those of its predecessor. "No one in Adrian seems even to have seen such bugs as these before, and there is little doubt that they are the real and only strangling bug." Since the foregoing was placed in type a gentleman asks the Telegram "If it had been taken in on that strangling bug deal, or was it also in on the ground floor. " He said that he had investigated the matter by a thorough search of natural history and was convinced that there was quite a difference between the illustration in the book and the real thing in Adrian. This is probably true, but in migrating so far it is probably the animal underwent some changes in formation to accommodate itself to the new climate. These stranglers will be in the coming natural histories as the "Adrian specimens. " Push Adrian!