New York Clipper (Sep 1856)

BEST TIME ON BECORD. noiA limpu, is bbb appxiud in naa eaiiT tbottdcs uaioh with taoont, on ihi uaion, l.i, oouan, tuudat, an. 3, iu»-noBA wuiiuho » onb hiat, a tbm onvabau.iui| ipn or <iM/it>' UB.46wn •gmln, tlrcDg u le. We were told,till Iw fti^ned to, tke end of Kb nnbroken whe»( i ke .vuM« itroog eiioiigh to lUl It right off the tai TRAINmO EXTRAORDINABY. StutUar MbrmtiitM of "Int<I)i«tuI TUu." , Wa biTe lately tftsooTered onlodlTida^ wbofor.tbe Uit tweniT j*m baa devoted his life to the intellutaal. tnlobg 01 fleas. He carries od hU operations la a little room in Htiylebone street, London. . We enter—there •re fleas here, fleas there, fleas ever/wbere | no legs than dxty fleaa are here Imprisoned and sentenced to bard la- bor for life. All of them are Inohlly.cbalned or fastened In Bome way or ether, so that eeoa'oe and sabscqnent feartlagupon visitors Is Imposrible. A little black apecb jimpenpsnddenly off the table whereon the performance ttkea placor-we walk np to Inspect, and: find that. It Is a monster flea attired " a la ecnvlot;". he Is fVee.to move aboo^ bQt, wherever be goes, a long gilt chain, tightly fiutened roond his neck, accoopantes him. '. OceaaionaUy he tries to Jomp ; the chain' soon brings ' '' lainels. We were told .that U. a straw, I table on irijoh it Is placed. The discovery was flrst made by the flea propHswr, and made him turn his attontlon towards ntUulag the race. One would think It were easy enough to.prooar^ troops of fleas, and lo perform; bat It appears Vm Btltner Is an easy matter. It Is not easy to procure a.lo\ a able-bodied fleas, and It Is not every sort pf flea tbM i^IU diix They most be human Qeas; dog fleas, eat flcM jaad bird fleas are of no use—they are not Uvelv eMai]i nor strong enongb, and soon break down In their talDUig. Hnmin fleas, therefore, must be obtained, and tifK flmnd bas oreatod a market for then.; The dealers tip wlnalpally elderly females, who supply the raw ma> Ujm ', US trade price of fleas, moreover, (llkp the trade prioe of.everylhhig else,) varies, tnit the average price Is tbiwpenoe a dozen. In the winter tlme'il 'l^slnienoe; aoA 'On one oooaslon the trainer was obllg^td to give tha liige. mm of slipenoe for one single flea.' He bad ar- najted: to give a performance; the time arrived; he un- PfMfid (he fleu; one, whose presence oo^ld not be dls- Pfnsed wltb, was gone. Wb«t was to b« done t thev^ oanqr gmst bo filled. At last, an ostler, pitying tho ma- Banc's dlstresB, supplied the needful animal; but h« re- mni slipenee for It, and sbpence he got I WbUe we were looking at the perforoanco, there oame la a frsth sapply of fleas; a swarm of them. In a vial bbttte, huddled altogether at the bottonk We gave them ai^su, and Inunedlately thoy all began hopping about, UWng ikslr Uttle homy heads against, the sides of ths kOtUe iwhiijh was held sideways) with snob force that tten m» a.^lstlaot noise, as If one had gently topped the bottom with • naU. They were not very good Irluds^ fse Uidy wnt.oeatiaqaUy gettlgg entaogled In naists^ •nd'flghtlng with their tl^y bntpowerfn] legs, and roUlog. over and over as If ih' mortal combat. It yiii noi, how- ever, 'a case of: life and'death;' for we did- not see one that was looking Iniured or tired, after tiie melee. We then ebserved one fact, which gave us great pi sure,, namely, that fleas are at enmity with bnga. Th9re was one bug in the bottle; surrounded by many fleas';'the poor bog.' mshed oontlnually from one end of' the bottle to the other, nwnlng.therganntlelt of the awmbled fleas*, eveiv'flea he oame'near. a(taeked him ; and ret^tod Im- medlatoly, as though half 4Mld of him; the bug, over- whelmed by numbers, had the worst of It, and beat an Ig- noble retieat into a-bit of flannel. [ Fleaa are not i^wavs brfrpght to market In vial bottlea A flea proprietor told us that be got all bis best fless from Enssfa, and that they 'eame over In plll.-boies, pack- ed In ithe flneat ootto6-wool. These fleas were big; pew- eifil And good workersL' W6j wonder whether w .Cos. itpm Hoase Iantborltles .thought Uiworth while, to. eiaml^ie :ttte oontonts of tocse plU-boies. 'When our Mend In Uarylebone makes bis snnnal tour Into the pt'ovlnees, his wife sends him weoklv a sapply of fleas In the corner of an.^qvelope, packed ..in tlstne-paper. She is careful not .16 put tbeni In the (ibrner .Where the stomp goes, as the poft-olBo* clerk' would, with his stamp-marker, at one blow, emsah the whole of the slock. ' ' A,flea cannot be taken up from Its wild stato and maje to work at once: like a colt or a puppy,.ltmuBt undergo of tralnli ■ his neck, knd there iled with a peculiar knot The flea, nnforthnettoly far himself, has a sroove or depression'be- tween hiB neck and his body, wnlch'sorves as a capital hold-fast fcr the bit of silk; It can slip neither'ikp ilor down, and heoanuot push It off with his legs) her U a prisoner, and ie thus tied to his work. This delicate ope- ration Is generally performed under a msgniiyiaK glass; but, after a time, the eve geto so accnstomed to the worki that the glass Is not always used. In no way Is the per- forming flea matUsted; bis kangaroo-like ndqging legs are not ont off, nor are his lobster-Uke walking legs In- terfered wltb—a flea must be in perfect health to perform The first lesson given to the novice Is the lame as that dven to a child, namely, to walk. To effect this he Is Hstened to the end of a slip of card-board, which works on a pin as on a plvst; the moment he feels himself firee from the hand, or rather forceps of the hamesser, he gives a tremendous spring forward: what Is the eonseaaencet he advances In • circle, and toe welght'of the card board keeps^iln^pwtkatthstiBe.tlme. Hf irtesltagatowllh fhe sane mfit; flnaily, be flndsthe pn;gteas he makes la, no wav equal tohls eiertlons; he therefore, like a wise flea, gives it nu, and walksronad and round with his ooid- board as.qnletly as an old blind horse does In a nlU. To arrive at this state of training requires abont a fortnight sh the average time. ! Th«r»is another mode of training fleas; to ahatthem bp in a small glass box which tarns fully between two upright supporters. The flea, when first pat In, hops Wildly aboat, but be only bite bis head agsbst the top of the box.'and at the same tine gets giddy With the -turn- lag round of Us prison. We are notawva which system of training has.proyed the more snootsrfaL .. Among the trained fleas already at work, we noticed the following ': there was a ootch with fonr fleas harnessed to It,' who dtaw It aloDB a pretty good pace; and we sbonld be Inclined to back the ooach In a race with a oommon garden snail. It Is very heavy for the Uttle creatures to drag along, for one pane of glass In the coaeh Is equal to the weight of one noodred fleas. There Isnlargenea, whose dally task Is to drag along a little model'Ofa man-of-war; It Isamasbg to seebln push and struggle,togat It long: bat getlt along he does, although It Istwo haodred and forty tlnei bis own weight Ag^n, there are two fleas lecored, one at each end of ft very llUle bit of 'gold colored pajlet., The/ are placed In a revtned position to each other-Hae looking one way, the other, another way. Thus tied, thsy j|fe placed in a sort of arena on the top of a maatcal-hox; ^' cae end of the box sits an orchestra compostd of fless, each tied to ite seat, and having the reisemblBOce of some nuitoal In- strument tied on tho foremost of their legs, The box is made to play, the exhibitor, tonphes each of the maslotons with a bit of stick, and the^v ail ^gln waving their hands abont, as performing an efabotato piece of music The fleas tied lo the gold paper feel the Jairiog of the box below, and begin to run round nsd round sa fast as their little legs wlU c^rry them. Tills hi called the Flea's Tightly secured In a tiny ohstt sits % flea facing a tloy cannon.. Several times a day this unlortanBto Insect fires thls .eanncn, and In this wise: 0ns of the little slips which form tho feather of a qolll pen la fastened on to one of bis legs, and a little dstonafing power placed on Ite tip; the exblbiter then presses the wand down on to Ike cannon, and seratobes the dotooaling powder, it goes ofl with a sharp report, making ths lookers-on Jump, but it astonishes nobody more than the flea blmselr; ho flourishes the burnt renulns of his firing wand msdly aboat In the air, bb nnmeronsly legshlek abont violently, ^ little head bobs up and don, ud aUogether be shows as nsny symtoms of alam as t| b soislbls fpr % flea to iihlhlt The indlvldul'flea'that we awlu tbb stoto of tiepldattOB did s«i Men to hsrtf got niM to Us work, though the p6oT thing had been flriog lili euMa abMt thirty times a d^i for a month. The fleas ore not kept always In hamesi: eroT each flea b taken oat of his hAmtis, b fsd, uA pfaMAm a private compartment In a box for the olxhti heAM' they go to bed tkey have their supn also tbeb breakfans^ npon the hand limes be has nearly all hb fless on i to the ol^t} bsAM . er. sod la theBMnlaip' 01 their owBirr ooiriO' nearly alfbb fless on the baeks of hb baalf^ ft the sane moment, all bitting and suoUogaway,^ 7«r.> moretbaa twenty years baa he thns dally fed us flsev without any detriment to hb health: tae''qaaiitltar"tf blood, be considers, would feed a flea many weeksfMI it Is the Itching sensatlsn caused bj the flea onltlbgttt. skin which b nnpleasant Thb feeUog of Itohlnk be Ml painfully when heflrst began to sunalt hlmseuto th« '. tender mercies of his Uttle performers; now he b so haid>' ened that he feeb them not at all, whether biting or soek- iog.: When, however, there are many on him at the sut# tine, he suBbrs f>om a s«nsatIon of great Irrltatlin iiti over his body, , which passes away whoa tbsir RiBper1»> over. He has remarked that fleas wUl notfksdlf U»' bond b not kept perfeotiy motionless; the act, tkerdMi of feeding andhsmessbg b troublesome tad bt to (W^ llged to give ap two hoars fn thenorolng aid two In fbti ifternconto It Hb fleas nnerally lire, t Ing tlaa^^ provided they are propeily nd and taken owe ot H* once had a flea, a patrurob,'who for dgbteen montho '*■•< occupied In pnlUng up a little bucket l^a a mil;'.ttto,' flea Uved longer than any other flea be Over pia, oo&jM,. ' lelleves he died floallyirom pure old , age;'for„lb wae ] bund dead one day, lUthfiil to hb po<^lUi m MAH' I Irawn hal^way up the welL-[Hoasekdd Words,' ' PEDB8TEIAN FEAT IN BUSBIAV J CAnin OooEOun, wUt set ont flrom St. F^tsnbdijb, In Hay, 1620, to inlli thnmgh the Interior of a««fat». ths east of AiriB, ulth a view of aseertalnbg.tbe flwt of • ^orthsait eipo, traveled at the fate of forty'ttres mUss» dayforoqe nudredand twen^-lhres snsoesslvs dm He afterwards walked upwards of fonr hundred mm . wllhont meeting a human being. Wherever he went •eems to have secommodatea hloiseir to the haUI». 6f. the peopb, however mde and dlsnutlog. Wilbth* ' Kalmnoks, be ato horse-flesb, elks, aid wolves; and Mtt ' the Tehntskl he found u little diOouli/ lo - oponbean^ reb-deer, and raw ttouM nsb, which he considered a great dslloaey. ! HonaiBUi-Whjr U • borss, kalfw^ ttlflgl llMi. like a peaay I It If bMl M ra# 4tfmmn Iheothtr ■ :7<v.;;.u'