CIMICID^ — BED-BUGS. 269 



impossibility. The men seem to take merely to the business 

 as a living when all other sources have failed. All, how- 

 ever, agree in acknowledging that there is such a street trade ; 

 but that the living it afi'ords is so precarious that few men 

 stop at it longer than two or three weeks. 



The most eminent firm, perhaps, of the bug-destroyers in 

 London now is that of Messrs. Tiffin and Son. They have 

 pursued their calling in the streets, but now rejoice in the 

 title of " Bug-Destroyers to Her Majesty and the Royal 

 Family." 



Mr. Tiffin, the senior party in this house, kindly obliged 

 Mr. Mayhew with the following statement. It may be as 

 well to say that Mr. Tiffin appears to have paid much atten- 

 tion to the subject of Bugs, and has studied with much earn- 

 estness the natural history of this vermin. He said : 



"We can trace our business back as far as 1695, when one 

 of our ancestors first turned his attention to the destruction 

 of bugs. He was a lady's stay-maker — men used to make 

 them in those days, though, as far back as that is concerned, 

 it was a man that made my mother's dresses. This ancestor 

 found some bugs in his house — a young colony of them, that 

 had introduced themselves without his permission, and he 

 didn't like their company, so he tried to turn them out of 

 doors again, I have heard it said, in various ways. It is in 

 history, and it has been handed down in my own family as 

 well, that bugs were first introduced into England, after 

 the fire in London, in the timber that was brought for the 

 rebuilding of the city, thirty years after the fire, and it was 

 about that time that my ancestor first discovered the colony 

 of bugs in his house. I can't say whether he studied the sub- 

 ject of bug-destroying, or whether he found out his stuff by 

 accident, but he certainly did invent a compound which 

 completely destroyed the bugs, and, having been so suc- 

 cessful in his own house, he named it to some of his cus- 

 tomers who were similarly plagued, and that was the com- 

 mencement of the present connection, which has continued 

 up to this time. 



"At the time of the illumination for the Peace, I thought 

 I must have something over my shop, that would be both 

 suitable for the event and to my business ; so I had a trans- 

 parency done, and stretched on a big frame, and lit up by 

 gas, on which was written 



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