Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 115, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 May 1910 — CHATS WITH GIRLS AND BOYS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CHATS WITH GIRLS AND BOYS

THE MONITOR. Ol* clock standin’ oh de mantel shelf; Nuffln’ much to do excep* a-takin’ to .hisself; Tellin’ 'ibout de seconds an’ de minutes an de hours. Countin ’ off de days between de snowstorm an’ de flowers; Jes’ a sing song story, for de mos’ he has to say Is “Yesterday was jes’ about de same thing as today; An’ de days dat's still a-comin* you Is gwfheter find at last, Is purty much de same as you was used to in de past.” . f -W'VSo, what’s de good .o’ waitin’ If you sees a chance to smile, A-thinkin’ dat de laughter may be better after while? An’ what’s de good o’ sighin’ fob de hopes of long ago, When de present has its prospects, same as what de past could show? Say chillun, Is you strivin’ on an’ smilin’ in de Now. Or is you jes’ complainin' ’bout de whyfor an’ de How, ’ An’ fixin’ up a future dat’ll find you on de shelf, Wis nuffin’ much to do excep’ a-takin’ to yourself? THROUGH A MICROSCOPE. “Come in, old man!” Boy’s father was writing hard in his study, but at the sound vs the knock on the other side of the closed deer he laid down his That -knock meant that Boy was thirsting' for his father’s society. So “Come in. old man!” brought Boy bursting into the room with, “Say, dad, are you awful busy?’’ The Boy, I,am sorry to say, when he ’ was in a huscy sometimes forgot his grammar. “Yes, I am very busy*, but I’m going to get out my microscope and look at some things, and maybe you would like to take a peek at them.” It was always an event when the bright polished microscope came out from under its glass case. Boy got the piano stool and screwed it high for his particular perch, from which he could look down into a world where tiny things suddenly became as big as cats and dogs. “Say, Boy, did you ever suppose that a fly or a flea or a mosquito was very interesting, or that there was anything to learn about any of them ?”

“Thev’re just measly little bugs, aren’t they, dad?” "Yes, but being just measly bugs doesn’t keep them from being Interesting, and I am going to show you how they look under our microscope. Here’s a mosquito. Did you ever imagine when you slapped one that he had so many ‘funny things about his body?” “Gee whiz, dad. what a queer mouth this fellow’s got! What’s that long, bristly hair banging out there and those spiky hairs alongside of it?" inquired Boy, as he looked down Into the tube. “That long, bristly hair, as you call ft, Is the sucking tube of the mosquito. He runs It into your skin and sucks up your blood through the slit he makes. If he comes to any hard place that won’t cut through he has two lancets that he keeps in a sheath, and he brings them out when necessary. In the same way he sucks up the nectar of plants, watermelon iuice, drinks water and even beer! Those long, feathery hairs you see are the ears of the mosquito. How would you like to have your ears out on long stalks like that? I have been calling this insect ‘he,’ but reallv this is a ladv mosquito. The gentlemen of the familv 'never bite and rarely go out for food. They prefer the women of .the family to do all the work and all the eating. They don’t come up to our idea of true- men, do thev. Boy? “Now I’m going to show you this chap—excuse me—this lady when she was a baby. She lives in the water and is called a wriggler. You remember we saw a lot of these baby mosquitoes on an old rain barrel last summer. They have to have air, but they get it through their tarts: a funny way to breathe, isn’t it? So now. when people want to destroy the crop of mosquitoes they kill off the wrigglers by putting kerosene oil on the surface of the water where they are living. This oil stops up the wriggler’s tall so it can’t breathe. Nqw I am going to show vou what the wriggler looks like when she is half grown and is just between being a baby and a full fledged mosquito. Now. vou see. she has come out of the wriggler stage and made herself a little raft to sit upon, and on this raft she comes to the surface of the water and sails around until her wings unfold and away she goes, a full fledged winged Insect, armed with her lances and sucking tube, ready for adventure, like the knights of old.’’ “Say, wfto'd ever think, dad, there was so much to know about a little biting buzzer like a mosquito?” "Now, fibv, I want you to look at the flea and tell me what he looks like to you.”, “Whew! Just like a n!g! But what are all those bristles sticking out of him?” “Isn’t It a good thing he Isn’t any bigger than he is- with a body like

that and those sharp, cutting jaws of .his? He Is so llttle and so active and so smart that it Is almost ’imposslbie to catch him or kill him after he is full grown. He can be killed when he is a baby quite easily, for he hatches from an egg and is very frail. Then he lives in a cocoon in a crack in the floor or in the soft threads of the carpet. But after he gets his growth he is well able to take care of himself and lives a happy, care free life, biting cats and dogs and people whenever he is hun-, gry. I think he is the most disagreeable, detestable little pest in the whole list of insects.” “Well, I never thought he looked like that. What next, dad?” “Now, for our friend the fly,” said father, putting a new slide under the tube. “Say, I thought a fly’s body was smooth; but this fellow is all hairs, on his legs and all.”

“Sure enough, Boy, and that is why he is dangerous. He walks in all kinds of dirt, and then he walks on our food ond leaves a trail of filth behind him wherever he goes. Flies are in some w&ysr more dangerous than fleas or mosquitoes, for they are so numerous, so hard to keep out, to catch or to kill. They live on all kinds of decaying food and bring along with them into our homes on their hairy bodies whatever dirt they have been trailing over.' .Men of science are workng to have people do all they can to destroy this dangerous little insect.” The boy was looking very Intently down the tube and thinking how.many hundreds of flies had crawled over him in the summer, outdoors and in, Father said: “Now, run alonb, Boy; time’s up and I must go back to my writing. Next time I'll show you some of the things that eat up these chaps and help to make their lives a burden.” Boy clattered downstairs and went back to his play, thinking how funny it would be if all the small bufcs should suddenly become as big as cats and dogs and come walking toward, him. —Helen B. Schoonhoven in the New York Tribune.

A SURPRISE. Teddy Thomas had been taken sick with mumps—mumps on both sides of the face at once.* That was bad, of course, but his mother said it wasn’t as if it were scarlet fever. Teddy didn’t see how anything could be worse, writes Emma C. Dowd. He was lying in bed, face all snarled with fretful thoughts, when he caught the sound of his own name. Ethel and brother James had come into the next room, and were talking softly. Teddy had sharp ears. ■ “It doesn’t do any good for Ted to be so cross,” Ethel was saying. “Mamma will be all used up if be keeps on this way.” “You may be sure he will keep on,” returned James. “He is a regular baby!” “I should think he’d have a little regard for us,” sighed Ethel. ‘“He doesn’t think of anybody else — selfish little pig!” said James. “I’ve always said I’d hate to have him sick,” Ethel went on. “He doesn’t know what patience is.” “And he’ll never learn,” added James. Teddy made an ugly face at the crack in the door, and then caught his breath with a scowl. Teddy lay quite still for a long time, thinking, thinking. “I believe I’ll do it!” he thought. “I can, I’m sure I can! How it will s’prise ’em! They don’t ’serve to be ’sprised, after talkin’ so ’bout their sick brother; ■but I guess I’ll have to. Mamma didn’t talk so—mamma d’serves a s’prise.” When Ethel came up stairs and said. “Ready for your medicine, Ted?” he answered with a sweet “Yes” through his teeth, and the surprise truly began. A little later mamma came in to change the flaxseed poultices on his face, and she was evidently astonished not to see the least flicker of a frown while she was doing It. “Do you feel any worse?” she asked. “Aches pretty hard,” he answered pleasantly, not even wincing at the pain caused by the slight movement of his jaws. She stooped and kissed him on his lips. “Mamma’s brave little boy!” she said. “Kind o’ fun, after all, to be patient!” he thought to himself, as she went away. “Didn’t suppose it would be.” James came up after dinner to bring a 'book of pictures for him 1 to look at, and Ted pluckily outdid his other attempts at cheerfulness. He had to pay for those smiles afterward —ch. how his jaws did ache! He couldn’t help being glad that James didn’t come very often, for no matter how bad he felt he was determined to show plenty of grit when James came there. It was when he first went down stairs that be let out the secret “I wouldn’t have believed that you would be?r an ill’-ess so bravely.” his father remarked. “You have been a little men.’' Teddy’s eyes shone. “I thought I’d s’prise you!” he chuckled. Jbe first trust In the United States to pass the 1100,000,000 mark in capitalization was the United States Leather Company, organized In 1893. Its capital stock combined with an issue of bonds amounted to 81388,000. In Cuba they fatten little pigs on cocoanuts and bake them into Chrismas turkeys.