20 N. J. Mosquito Extermination Association 



**One of our handicaps in securing skilled laborers was the insid- 

 ious and disloyal attitude displayed by some of our home news- 

 papers and magazines in depicting to their readers the terrible health 

 and living conditions alleged to prevail on the Isthmus, long after 

 the zone had become a safer and healthier place of residence than 

 the very cities in which some of these papers were pubHshed. The 

 words of irresponsible letter-writers were taken in direct contradic- 

 tion of the facts, and screeds were eagerly scattered broadcast, pois- 

 oning the public mind, all probably for the sake of sensationaUsm." 



On Sunday, July ii, 1915, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle over a half 

 page illustrated story has this caption : 



*'To Banish Mosquitoes? Almost too Good to be True." 



"Henry B. Maurer, Secretary of the Kings County Anti-Mosquito 

 Association, hand uplifted, does solemnly swear that the sanguineous 

 galaxy of Solicitious Free Lancers will disappear from off the face 

 of Flatbush. But you know promises have been made before, so 

 do not send your mosquito screens to poor relatives in New Jersey 

 and don't destroy your mosquito-proof helmets till the Coroner has 

 inquested." 



In Heston's Hand Book, published in 1885, Atlantic City is de- 

 scribed this way : 



"Call it a sand patch, a desolation, a swamp, a mosquito territory, 

 where you cannot build a city — or if you could, not one would go 

 there." 



In 1855, land in Atlantic City sold at $17.50 per acre. Today 

 it is necessary to make reservations per night at $17.50 and up, and 

 find your own breakfast ! 



Josh Billings in his Farmer's Allminax 1870-1879, makes game of 

 the Musketeers. "There is millyums of them caught every year, 

 but not with a hook, this makes the market for them unsteady, the 

 supply always exceeding the demand." 



"I am satisfied that there war'nt nothing made in vain, but I can't 

 keep thinking how mighty close the Muskeeters came to it." 



It is encouraging to note that to make a mosquito the butt of a 

 joke is becoming a lost art. 



Our only way out of this dilemma of more or less continued ridi- 

 cule and unbelief must come through a Publicity Board, and this 

 to be effective must have a broad minded head and be adequately 

 financed. 



Educational work? Yes. But fundamentally the goal to reach 



