A Word For The Fly

A respected correspondent, not satisfied -with the entomological opinions of the physicians, has peered through the lens of a microscope to learn more of ílies. He has ascertained íhat thëy are lovers of gurn, and that they buzz through the air in pursuit of that luxury. The gum does not come readymade to the fly, but is at tirst the invisible animaloule, or lice, of the air, whioh gather to tho glutinous wings, limbs and trunks of tne liiile insect, and are worked over into shape for mastication. "The fly," repeats the correspondent, " is a useful scavenger, and a good deal better one ihan the doctor, since it never brings in a big bill for his services, and tiie doctor never fails to do so." "'W'atch a fly," he continúes, " that has been soaring around your room, gathering in air lice ; wait till he settles upon ft lump of sugar, and then see him hoe himself down with his feet and eat gum, air lice and sugar with equal gusto." "'Tis true," sadly admits the inveetigator, " if you will allow plenty of garbage around, the fly will gather on it just as bummers firowd lip to the bat of a gin mili, auá tney will get lazy aiid good for nothing, and 'whittle ' on withered cabbage and cheese rinds, instead 01 eanng gum. They force the slovenly housekeeper to a certain degree of cleanliness to escape annoyauce from them, for if she keeps her apartments perfectly clean and sweet, then there will be no animacule to make gum of, and no flies to eat, you see. On the contrary, if her house is untidy and unsavory, the fly will go tbrough a deal door and a pair of stairs, you see, to get his gum, and he Will use her face or the sugar-bowl as a dish to ot it ütlt of;" The correspondent enforces his opinions by quotations from the Eaglish chemist, Mr. Emerson, who flrst discovered the facfc that flies eat gum, and who cipliered ötit tile problem by the algebraic formula of Nos. 1, 2, 3, i, 5, and n. Mr. Emerson saw a fly on a lump of sugar. Instead óf " damning a fly," he set to work to find out why "the insect 's miuute trunkor proboscis, which is perfectly retractile, and which terminates in twb lare lobes that are spread out whefa the fly begihs a meal on sugar (and gum), should be passed over its body so frequently while the fly dined, or in other words, why the fly should lick itself like a cat, since its trunk was not made for licking, bat for grasping and sucking." The chemist feil to thinking. He caught the fly and put jt under the microeoopej and saw the - ináect was covered with air lice. Here was something to be looked into. " Why is the fly lousy ?" mused Mr. Emerson. Se caught another fly with a like result, and in this case found the insect eatiDg the vermin which had been worked O'ver into gum. "A glance through the mioroscope," said the chemist, "3Ílowed thát the operation was not one of beautificatiorij for wherever the air lice were, thither the trunk went. The lice were disappearing into the trunk ! ! The fly was eating them ! I !" The chemist grasped a paper, waved it frantically and mysteriously through the air, put it under the lens, and found it thickly covered with the same kind of vermin that he had discoveredon the flies. "Here is something definite," said he. "The puzzle is solved. Eureka ! The fly is a scavenger." Mr. Emerson made investigations with flios taken in fllthy and unhealthy places, and found them fat and saucy, while insects caught in clean and well-ventilated apartments where they could get little gum, Were as lean and lonesome as a park bummer after a night in a bar-roonii The fly correspondent closes with the giowing peroration : " One word for the mosquito. When the slimmer sun dries up tho stagnant maashes, he sends the gay and festivo mosquito to waru you to close your windows against the miasma that will bring chills and fevers, and if you will not listen to his gentle roundelay, he inserts his little bilí as a gentle rerninder of the doctor's bilis that will follow, compared with whieh it is as Titania's wand to Goliah's club."