They are about the bigness ov an onion seed, and shine like a bran new
shot.
They spring from low places, and kan spring further and faster than enny
ov the bug-brutes.
They bite wuss than the musketoze, for they bite on a run; one flea will
go aul over a man’s subburbs in 2 minnitts, and leave him az freckled az
the meazels.
It iz impossible to do ennything well with a flea on you, except sware,
and fleas aint afraid ov that; the only way iz tew quit bizzness ov aul
kinds and hunt for the flea, and when you have found him, he ain’t
thare. Thiz iz one ov the flea mysterys, the fackulty they hav ov being
entirely lost jist as soon as you hav found them.
I don’t suppose thare iz ever killed, on an average, during enny one
year, more than 16 fleas, in the whole ov the United States ov America,
unless thare iz a cazualty ov sum kind. Once in a while thare iz a dogg
gits drowned sudden, and then thare may be a few fleas lost.
They are about az hard to kill az a flaxseed iz, and if you don’t mash
them up az fine az ground pepper they will start bizzness agin, on a
smaller kapital, jist az pestiverous az ever.
Thare iz lots ov people who have never seen a flea, and it takes a
pretty smart man tew see one ennyhow; they don’t stay long in a place.
If you ever ketch a flea, kill him before you do ennything else; for if
you put it oph 2 minnits, it may be too late.
Menny a flea haz past away forever in less than 2 minnits.
NOT ENNY SHANGHI FOR ME.
The shanghi ruseter is a gentile, and speaks in a forrin tung.
He is bilt on piles like a Sandy Hill crane.
If he had bin bilt with 4 legs, he wud resembel the peruvian lama.
He is not a game animil, but quite often cums off sekund best in a ruff
and tumble fite; like the injuns, tha kant stand sivilization, and are
fast disappearing.
Tha roost on the ground, similar tew the mud turkle.
Tha oftin go to sleep standing, and sum times pitch over, and when tha
dew, tha enter the ground like a pickaxe.
Thare food consis ov korn in the ear.
Tha crow like a jackass, troubled with the bronskeesucks.
Tha will eat as mutch tu onst as a district skule master, and ginerally
sit down rite oph tew keep from tipping over.
[Illustration: SHANGHI.]
Tha are dredful unhandy tew cook, yu hav tu bile one eend ov them tu a
time, yu kant git them awl into a potash kittle tu onst.
The femail ruster lays an eg as big as a kokernut, and is sick for a
week afterwards, and when she hatches out a litter of yung shanghis she
has tew brood them standing and then kant kiver but 3 ov them--the rest
stand around on the outside, like boys around a cirkus tent, gitting a
peep under the kanvas when ever tha kan.
The man who fust brought the breed into this kuntry ought tew own them
all and be obliged tew feed them on grasshoppers, caught bi hand.
I never owned but one and he got choked tu deth bi a kink in a clothes
line, but not until he had swallered 18 feet ov it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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