FLEA TALK.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1043, 4 February 1873, Page 4

FLEA TALK.

The building m which the District • and Warden's Courts are held is a pretty building. It is also tolerably ! new, and, in fact, is pleasant to look at both within and -without. But to : .. uso it for sitting down, or for Court purposes, it is much plensanter to be without. For there is cocoanut fibre matting on the fioor, aud in that cocoanut fibre matting there are fleas, so plentiful that there is as much flea as : fibre. This is merely a literal statement of fact neither adorned by hyperbole ner enhanced by exaggeration. It is pleasant to notice " how doth the little busy flea delight to hop and bite." Bo soon as ever the Clerk of the Court and tho lawyers sit down at their tables and place their legs on the matting thn fleas begin their pleasant, wanton gambols, the consequence of which is that these gentlemen divide their time into equal proportions of picking fleas off their shins and pursuing their professional duties. They ■ work at the former occupation with i the energy of men pumping.a ship on short watches. They have but a certain time for picking off fleas, and there is barely space to accomplish the work, in the time, so as to admit of their getting through their business mparative case. The result is pi -,g to the beholder. 'A counsel will have addressed the Court in a speech, remarkable for- its eloquence, and will have concluded, when, instead of looking around for the approbation he may reasonably expect, he suddenly . assumes a position like that he was accustomed to in his early days, when defied by a school-fellow to pat his toe in his mouth, aud is seen to pluck. nervously and earnestly at his ankles. Jte is lleaing—not fleeing from the wrath to come—but. fleaing with a feeling that even tho wrath to come would be better than the plague he endures in the present. It mny be noticed that the members of the Press enjey immunity from the fleas —not because the fleas have any respect lor the "mighty engine of civilisation;" not a bit; but because the members of tho Press have a long wide form to themselves, upon which they recline as did the old Romans at their banquets, and so deprive the fleas of the banquet. This is resented by the fleas, who contend with each other madly, in a series of high jumps, to reach tho form and their vanquished prey. But they cannot, and, therefore, when a member of the Press puts his legs on the floor—which he only does in order to bolt from the Court—he is pursued by fleas,, who chase him even beyond the Court door.—Thames ' Evening Star.'