348 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [12:8— Nov., 1916 



Crowds would stop in the halls and pass conjectures as to "who 

 put them there," with the inevitable question, "what are they 

 for?" The posters, themselves, were large sheets of cardboard, 

 decorated, and lettered by hand. (Our Art department would 

 never have owned them.) Our main reason for not having them 

 printed was that there were no finances, supporting the campaign, — 

 a very good reason, as must be seen. However, we gained another 

 advantage by this economy that we did not, perhaps, appreciate 

 at the time. Indeed, these succeeded where printed posters, 

 or handbills might have failed. For certainly, no one can deny 

 that a large, white card with some sort of strange picture drawn 

 on it — probably by a friend one was interested in — and some 

 printing, too, — that one could hardly read at all, without stopping 

 to investigate — was a very interesting thing, and worthy investi- 

 gation. And they did stop, and they did investigate. This, 

 of course, told them nothing of the campaign, but it prepared 

 them for the announcement that was to come later, — that the 

 campaigners would send a speaker to give a short lecture at the 

 next Patrons' Club meeting. Ours is a large, central high school, 

 drawing its pupils from all parts of the city, and, for this reason, 

 it was possible, in nearly all . cases, to send as representative 

 some member of the class who had previously graduated from 

 that school, or who was well known in the district. When the 

 announcement was made, the child rushed home with the news 

 that "Mary Ann Jones was coming to school next Thursday, 

 to give a speech at the Mothers' Club." The promise of a lecture 

 on the fly was, probably, the least alluring one they could have 

 made, and, I have no doubt, many, or most of the "patrons" 

 came simply to see their friend perform, — but they came. 



These lectures were about fifteen minutes in length, and dealt 

 with the principal discoveries concerning the fly, the dangers 

 that carelessness in the matter involved, the fly's habits, and ways 

 of exterminating him, together with some explanation of . the 

 campaign, itself, and a few unavoidable words in its behalf. 



It was our task to shock an over-indifferent public into a realiza- 

 tion of its duty, and we were to do it by means of 'these lectures. 

 We quoted awe-inspiring statistics; we dealt with "loving exact- 

 ness" on the habits of the fly in all their horrible details, and we 

 duly shocked our public. And the most horrible parts of the 

 lecture were the parts they remembered, — and told. They were 



