A PRIZE ESSAY ON THE FLEA.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1325, 19 November 1883, Page 2

A PRIZE ESSAY ON THE FLEA.

The flea is incontestible, beyond all other animals, the bosom friend of man and of woman too. In all climes, from arctic frost, to the melting heat of the tropics, in storm and calm and all other weathers, in wealth and poverty, health and poverty, health or sickurss, in gaol or palace, cellar or attic, in mountain or valley, in peace or war, at sea or on shore, in good or evil report, in the Democratic or Republican party, under free trade or high tariff, republic or monarchy, prohibition or high license, the flea has always been true to man as the needle to the pole. When a family has emigrated from Russia, Germany, Norway, or Ireland, to Canada, Brazil, or Boston, the family liea has unselfishly sacrificed home and native land to share the fortunes and bedclothos of its hereditary friends. Does a Catholic family turn Protestant or a Protestaut turn Catholic, the flea stands by the family every time, just the same. Its motto is, first my friends, afterwards patriotism and religion. When a rich family has gone into stocks and had to remove from a marble or browustoue palace to a tenement attic — when cousius and aunts, the dearest of friends, servantsj coachmen, grocerymeu, milkmen, and even the deputy, assessor have forsaken them, did anyone ever hear of the fleas of the family throwing off their fealty ? Never. When ja: inhuman family undertakes to be churlish and selfish and to sever their natural relations" with their faithful adherents, the flea never relaxes his fidelity. If thrown out, .sweptjflUrtj, or .. drowned out, the flea is ever ready to forgive and forget; he returns good naturedly to his duties in the domestic circle, even if he is obliged to enter by the keyhole, the window, the chimney, in the fur of the family cat or on tne back of a neighbor's dog. His affection is unfaltering. He:never sulks. A great amount of nonsense has been written about the affection and fidelity of the dog, and ..ho willing service to his master, man. In his way, of course, the dog is friendly to his own particular owner, but when he comes into competition with the flea as a philanthropist, a friend of the race, an unpurchaseable lover of humanity, he must be pronounced an ignominious failure. Had the dog of the past 4,000 years been obliged to capture all his food at the point of the bayonet, had we swept him into the fire whenever we could, had we scalded him with hot water and washed him out with cold stifled him with dog powder, poisoned him with dogbane, chased and worried and hunted and cursed him everywhere and mounted, his legs aud. ny&udibles on glass as objects. for the microscope, does anyODe believe the dog's irieudship for man would prompt him to volunteer to do the barking for the family, and in the family name and interest, shake the pig by the ear, kill sheep, and put the tramps and cats to hasty flight ! Not any. In place of the dog being the first and fast friend of man there is no evidence to disprove the hypothesis that the dog's true mission in his companionship with man was o preserve the domestic flea from extermination, to afford man's nearest and most confidential friend a sure and safe retroat and a base of operations available in all weathers ; a field for recreation, drill practice j to enable him, under tbe competent, skilful instruction of his experienced seniors, to guard agaiis a I surprises and be equal to all uu.rgencies. We have no reliable history of tbe flea previous to the flood ; whether he could in antediluvian days jump 200 times his own length, how many times his own weight he could shoulder and carry, must ever be shrouded in mysterious uncertainty. In the narrative of Job's afflictions, friends and comforters, the flea was not once mentioned. But as the dog was noticed, we may infer the flea was present and engaged in his customary domestic and business pursuits. Pew people are aware of the affectionate regard which, the world over, the flea manifests for man and their kind solicitious attention to the stranger . Arriving at Melbourne or Sydney by ship, you fiud a delegation of them have come off with the boarding and health officers to welcome you, and they stay with you while there ; when you retire to rest you find they have arranged with a numerous colony of their relatives to serenade you till sunrise. When you come to Callao or Valparaiso or any Spanish port, you are introduced by the first boat that conies from the shore to the most active business fleas in the world, save of course those of California and Mexico. While you shake hands with the captain of the port, who is the first man on board, a company of pioneers in two divisions are cliining up both your stockings and peroaps boarding the stranger in various other directions.

When you reach the shore those in ] sight will suspend all business on hand ; to pay their cheerful respects to the newcomer. The flea never permits one to , feel lonely or neglected. But it would ; take a volume to describe all the obliga- j tions under which that cruelly maligned ! and unappreciated acrobat has laid us.