THE ART OF EDUCATING FLEAS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 112, 30 August 1876, Page 2

THE ART OF EDUCATING FLEAS.

The art of educating a flea so as to make it perform the various feats performed by the troupes of learned fleas that are occasionally exhibited to the amazement of beholders, appears to be carried on by means of a few very simple expedient* The first difficulty to be met is that of getting a flea to give up springing, and to adopt the habit of walking, like a reasonable creature. To cure it of this wild way of jumping, the flea is put into a little box, eveiy leap it makes brings it into contact with the side of the box, against which it hurts itself at every spring ; after a few days of these vain attempts, it finds that it is of no use to rebel against fate, gives up leaping, iMid creeps gently about the box, This first step accomplished the trainer passes a hair round its body, at the the third joint of its coat of mail, and ties it firmly to a fixed point. The flea thinking itself free tries to spring, but finds it cannot get away, and gives up the attempt, When it had ceased its efforts to escape, the trainer gives it a tiny bit of raw meat, on which tiie hungry creature throws itself eagerly. Arrived at this stage of the training, the rest is only a matter of patience, and it is gradually made by means of hah' to march in time, to trundle a little wheelbarrow, to turn a mill, to d~aw a little carriage. The trainer employs only the two grand means just indi- / cated, viz.y the "terrible box, when his little pupil refuses to work, and the bits of raw flesh when it has gone well through its lesson. The famous English fleatrainer, Kitchingham, give s : ten hours a day to the exercising of his pupils; and when they have done their work, takes them paternally on the palm of his hand, by ten at p, time, and lets them feast their fill as they stand there. They sleep in little boxes lined with red flannef, and under a strip of white flannel. At ten o'clock in the morning he takes them out of their beds ; performs their toilet with the aid of a minute feather-brnsh, so as to leave no little fibre of wool in their joints, which would impede their movements; and he then takes them through their exercises, on a table covered witli white paper. The Belgian fleas are considered by Kitchingham to be the most docile. One of them, named Hercules, draws a tiny ship, of ivory, just one thousand times heavier than his little body ! WJiatg could men not accomplish if possessed of| strength proportioned to that of this in-H sect! 1