MORE MINOR HORRORS 



CHAPTER I 



COCKROACHES (Periplaneta) 



Part I 



The Governess : And, perhaps, Mabel, as they are not black 

 and as they are not beetles, you will in future call them cockroaches. 



Mabel : Certainly, Miss Smith, although they are not cocks 

 and they are not roaches. (Punch.) 



In ' The Minor Horrors of War,' we rather 

 neglected the Navy — the senior Service, and 

 till now the more dominant of our two mag- 

 nificent forces — partly because it is less inter- 

 fered with by insect pests than is the sister 

 Service, though the common pests of our 

 poor humanity — ^tlie flea, the louse, the bug 

 — are, like the poor, ' always with us.' Like 

 aeroplanes, insects have captured the air; 

 like motors, they have made a respectable 

 show on land; but they have signally failed 

 at sea. They have nothing corresponding 

 to battleships or submarines; and a certain 



