The parable of the mosquito larvae
Media
Part of The American Chamber of Commerce Journal
- Title
- The parable of the mosquito larvae
- Language
- English
- Source
- The American Chamber of Commerce Journal Volume 8 (No. 11) November 1928
- Year
- 1928
- Rights
-
- Fulltext
- November, 1928 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 27 I Coming! i Just the book you’ve always | wanted and couldn’t get! “OLD MANILA” Percy A. Hill’s deft gleanings from the Chronicles of the Friars [ during Spain’s long period of ; 350 years! The book is edited by Walter Robb, who supplies a preface on the author, Mr. Hill himself being a most ro mantic character. Mr. Robb j also writes the splendid intro- | duction. “Old Manila” will be out in full size and a fine jacket , about November 15. PLACE ORDERS NOW! The Philippine Education Go., Inc. I Publishers ’ 101-103 Escolta Manila, P. I. loafed gloriously till late afternoon, as the one farrier and blacksmith at S..........was not able to finish shoeing all the horses until near sunset, whereupon the troop remounted, reviewed by the colonel and his staff, and at a smart trot made the five miles home, reaching there as the bright moon was silvering all the countryside with its unearthly beauty. After reporting to a C. O., who was so utterly disgusted by the orders wired from S..........as to be nearly speech less, the men gleefully rejoined their less fortu nate brethren, after first vowing solemn silence on the exact manner of their being lost; so that when the non-coms of the patrol were lined up for a stiff cross-examination before the exasper ated C. O. and his brother officers, the innocent faces and uniform testimony of all of them left no loophole for action, and while they were within short distance of a court martial, the fact that they, as their Irish sergeant put it, saw the colonel first, saved their bacon. But for the rest of the time the battalion lay at L........... the horse marines were never sent on patrol duty; and it was not many weeks later that the quartermaster turned in all the horses to the corral at Manila, and the doughboys were again reduced to Shanks’ mare for transpor tation. For many years the legend of the flying column, which in time grew to the dimensions of a regi ment, was current in that part of Laguna among the inhabitants, and their wild ride and wilder antics pictured in the colors of an exterminat ing and devastating horde like unto the Huns of Attila, notwithstanding the fact that the only gun fired was the pistol of the hospital steward, who shot a wild pig the last day out, which, being roasted with yams, made an excellent supper. And digging yams and splitting coconuts was the only use to which bayonets were put. The Parable of the Mosquito Larvae By Anne Miltimore Pendleton And now, Dearly Beloved, shall I relate unto thee a parable, even though the telling of it be not pleasant to me, for that the lesson of the par able did hurt my pride, of which, forsooth, I have too much, as thou mayst or mayst not know. Now it so happeneth that for some time there hath been a creature of venomous intent and stinging purpose who dwelleth among us quite against the wishes of the Community. And it hath been so ordained by the Authorities that such animals as the dog and the horse, yea, even the fowls of the barnyard, shall be awarded neither housing nor yarding privileges of College Hill, which Hill do be the place whereon the good Man of My House and I do have our Dwelling Place. And we do think that we who Dwell on this Hill do be of the Elite—ahem! Howbeit, speaking of the order concerning the Domestics, I may say in strictest confidence Ship via Great Northern Across America A fast, dependable freight service between the Pacific Northwest Ports of Entry and Minneapolis, St. Paul, Chicago, New York and other Eastern Points makes this a most profitable route to reach the American markets. 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And I must not forget to add that this strange and virulent form of malaria attacked naught but the servant and lower class Filipino, and did not once affect the upper stratum of Filipino society, nor yet any of the whites, that is to say, it did not affect IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 28 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL November, 1928 us to the extent of making us ill, though the housewives did hold it a very great inconvenience to have the servants unable to perform their respective duties. Thus it was that an unwanted guest came to dwell among us. Anon I did keep the cement water cups around the posts of the house well cleaned, and the clean water surfaced over with •a coating of that oil that hath so many uses and so many virtues ascribed to it all throughout the Orient, namely, coal oil or kerosene. And I did be most assiduous in the performance of this duty though the Health Journals do say but once in ten days are such rites necessary, yet did I intensify the virtues of the oil by causing the ceremony to be performed twice a week, and most murderously did I search for the wrigglers in the cement troughs, and most vigilantly did I pounce upon the unsuspecting offspring of the vicious Anopheles, and moreover, every day did I stand the cook and the houseboy up before me, and myself did personally supervise their taking of copious draughts of quinine—that one and only malaria specific. And whether, because of their repugnance to the nastiness of the medicine, or because of its efficacy, or because of a sudden access of zeal for labor, the servants were soon back on the job, and I did feel that I had done well. Yet did I not cease my vigilant search for offending wrigglers, but kept up the good work continuously, and I did and do most firmly believe that the pestilent Anopheleses that did sting me and cause me to assuage the irritations of their attentions by unseemly applications of my finger nails so that the good Man of My House did say more than once in a pained voice, “My DEAR, I DO wish you wouldn’t scratch your legs in Public!” did have their breeding places in OTHER people’s houses, and in tree stalks and jungle debris which be all about us, and especially in the broad leaves of banana trees which do hold much water for some time, and I still do stoutly maintain this idea. But lo, Dearly Beloved, and this be the whole sum and substance of my Parable, “Pride goeth before Destruction, and a Haughty Spirit before a Fall.” The Health Officer did yesterday morning send a -subordinate to the house wherein do dwell the Man of My House and I, and the subordinate did speak in this wise, “Thou art the only people nearby who hath cement cups under thy house, and there be much malaria on the Hill and the Doctor thinketh mayhap the mosquitoes do breed in the places beneath thy house, and he hath sent me to investigate, and gaze into thy cement cups, and behold whether or not there be any wrigglers there, and if so be there be, then will the Doctor come and pour crude oil all round thy place.” Now I do loathe crude oil with a loathing unspeakable, and moreover, it maketh as thou well knowest, what the Man of My House doth vulgarly term, and that, too, quite inelegantly, a “bad stink,” and I do apologize for the phrase. But I said to the Doctor’s subordinate, “Go thou and look, and I will come take a look-see with thee.” For, because of all my care of them I thought there would be naught of disgrace attached to my cement cups. And Beloved, we looked, and lo, in several of the cups did we find one wriggler, and in one of the cups severa/wrigglers, and Dearly Beloved, I vow the grin on the face of the Doctor’s su bordinate was not sympathetic, nay, rather, to my sensitive eyes, it was fiendishly malicious. And a Wicked Thought did come into my head, for which, Dearly Beloved, I am not as yet properly repentant, but the thought was this: The Doctor thinketh that because the cement cups beneath our house be so apparent, they do, therefore, be a place where wrigglers may very easily put in an appearance, for none of the houses nearby have this splendid arrangement for keeping pestiferous ants from entering the house, and moreover, in this damp, wet weather, it be much more easy to search my open cement cups, than to prowl around searching for wrig glers in the dank jungle back of the houses, and in the crotches of trees, and in the broad cups of the banana leaves, and especially and par ticularly in a bad sewer that hath been leaking for so long that it hath become a renowned source of wrigglers, but it would be bad odor to the Doctor to let it be known that a sewer hath been leaking for long, so because my house be nearby, and the cement cups easy to gaze into by the mere squatting down, and looking therein, he, because it be more convenient for him, maketh of me an example. I did so faithfully try to carry out both the letter and the spirit of the law, and I did cause much time and energy and kero sene to be expended upon the project, and yet did these inconsi derate wrigglers most pertly show their pres ence, and so are they, even though their num ber be ever so few, held against me and my methods of sanita tion. And so am I fallen from grace, and my pride be forever wounded, and my “face” hath quite dis appeared, and I can find it in my heart to wish that the Doctor’s subordinate had not grinned such a fiend ish grin, and taken such delight in my so small defection; but more, I think it most contemptible of those detestable Anopheles offspring so to betray me. And I am sitting in sackcloth and ashes and lamenting with Job that there are many unfair things in this world, Beloved, and this is one of them. But oh, Be loved, I have been many times more mos quito stung elsewheres than in my own home, indeed and I have, and now thou seest I am not yet properly enhumbled, and of a truth, the humbling process ever goeth hard with me, the more especially, in this instance, for that I did say to the Man of My House but the night before, “Go thou and see if there be any wrigglers in the ce ment cups,” and he did do my bidding, and did report that of the wrigglers he did not see any, no, not one. Dearly Beloved, I do think there be more than one moral to this parable. Truly, “Pride goeth before ’ Destruction, and a Haughty Spirit before a Fall,” and also, Beloved, when we think we be most secure then is. Tempta tion more certain to assail us, for Satan cometh in the night, or in one small hour, or yea, even in less time. Firestone Gum-Dipped Tires give extra mileage under every stress of service. 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