48 NO. RTH 
SH 70 TR ie 
BREEZE 
But just there comes the rub and 
the difficulty which everyone must 
be aware of. Neglect to put filth 
into the properly equipped recepta- 
cles by a single careless person may 
undo the work of everyone else in 
the community because he could 
easily feed enough flies to  off- 
set the best and united efforts of all 
the rest. None can be excused in 
this fight. It is important that ev- 
eryone do his share. 
That the idea is practical is clearly 
evident to any observant person 
who sees the way in which flies are 
invariably attracted to a single bit 
of exposed food stuff. 
Formerly the method adopted to 
lessen the number of flies was the 
quick removal of filth to distant 
places. But as it takes but ten days 
for the complete life cycle of the fly, 
it is clearly evident no plan can be 
formulated to dispose of this waste 
matter often enough to cope with 
the breeding abilities of the fly. The 
adult fly must be got rid of before 
he has a chance to breed by using 
the breeding and feeding places as 
a trap. Traps at the cellar windows 
of stables and garbage cans will be 
able to catch nearly every fly which 
comes. upon the premises and _pre- 
cludes the possibility of his gaining 
entrance to a_ place suitable for 
breeding. 
Caught 2500 in 55 Minutes. 
A serviceable fly-trap is attached 
to the cover of the garbage can so 
that the odor of the filth contained 
serves as an attraction to the fly. In 
one of these traps in just 55 minutes 
about 2500 flies, it is estimated, 
were caught, which were capable. of 
producing within ten days 160,000 
flies. The moral can be read: by any- 
one. bi 
As Professor Hodge concisely puts 
the matter, ‘‘If we would all stop 
the feeding there would be no breed- 
ing.’’ He said: ‘‘The fly breeds in 
filth, feeds in filth and scatters filth 
wherever it flies or walks, and it 
carries not only typhoid but every 
other filth disease. . Over 6,000,000 
living bacteria have been washed 
from the filthy body of a single fly. 
“The verdict has been handed 
down against the typhoid fly of 
‘murder in the first degree.’ Milk 
is often assigned as the cause of an 
epidemic, when in reality it is flies 
that carry and plant the fatal germs 
in the milk. So in cities it has been 
discovered that intestinal diseases 
of children, especially of infants 
who live on milk, increase not so 
much with heat or other weather 
conditions, but with the number of 
flies. The number of ‘‘murder’’ of 
infant deaths, of cases of typhoid 
and other filth diseases, which is 
now charged directly to the fly, runs 
into the thousands annually; _ so 
that for bulk of murder no other ani- 
mal in the world can compete with 
this filthy pest. 
“The filth fly must be executed 
for its crimes, must be exterminated. 
How this is to be done is the ques- 
tion. 
‘Our solution of the fly problem 
puts me in mind of the ostrich that . 
pokes its head into the sand and 
thinks itself safe. We put ourselves 
in jail, behind the bars of fly-screen, 
and leave the flies in possession of 
the great out-of-doors; and then 
have to keep up a running fight with 
the pests that break into our prison 
houses and make life a burden to us. 
For a long time I have thought that 
it is the flies that should go to jail 
behind the “‘bars’’ especially de- 
signed for them, and not ourselves. 
Just now that Worcester is recover- 
ing from a typhoid epidemic is a 
good time to take a fair hold of the 
matter. 
‘‘One thing is clear. Every sick 
room and every patient, and every 
bit of anything from patient or sick 
room capable of carrying infection, 
dejecta, dishes, soiled clothing or 
bedding, should be absolutely pro- 
tected from flies. No fly should be 
trusted with these germs. A _ boy 
with his pockets full of dynamite 
cartridges is a safe proposition in 
comparison. 
‘“We pay $10,000,000 a year for 
screen windows and doors to keep 
ourselves in jail, and just now we are 
being told to clean up all the filth 
about our stables and back yards in 
which flies can breed, and have it 
carted off in a week. The cleaning 
up is all right, but merely carting 
the stuff off to a dump somewhere 
is not going to kill the eggs and 
maggots in it. Then how about our 
miles of gutters and sewers? After 
these years of study of the matter, I 
am convinced that if one hundredth 
vart of the expense, energy and fu- 
tile effort that we now waste were 
intelligently directed, we could, as a 
city, be entirely rid of the filth fly 
pest. 
‘‘Carry the war into Africa. At- 
tack the fly outdoors, before it gets 
into the house. It has been estim- 
ated that if all the flies of a city 
should live and breed and none of 
the progeny should die, the inhabi- 
tants could not find means of travel 
to escape from under the mass of 
maggots and flies that would de- 
velop. We turn to and fight and 
then say, when we have them almost 
whipped, ‘Oh, never mind a few,— 
they cant’ do much harm.’ If a pair 
. uous running fight. 
of flies should begin in the spring 
and all the progeny should live, the 
flies and maggots would... bury 
Worcester, towers, church spires 
and smoke stacks, clear out of sight 
before October first. The first city 
in which every man, woman and 
child wakes up to what this last, or 
first, pair of flies can do in the line 
of breeding filth flies, will be abso- 
lutely flyless in less than:six weeks 
and will keep itself so ever after- 
wards. I only wish Worcester 
might be that city. 
‘*T think it is safe to say that ev- 
ery fly comes to some back door to 
feed. If it got a dose of formalin or 
walked into a trap, it would not go 
back to the barnyard, stables or gut- 
ters or sewers, whence it came, to 
lay its eggs. If no more eggs were 
laid, in a short time we would. have 
no more flies coming to our back 
doors and kitchen windows. Then 
we could take down our screen doors 
.and windows and let ourselves out of 
jail. 
‘‘T have been trying this plan now 
for three years and I know it will 
work. Of course if one family does 
this and all his neighbors feed their 
flies at their kitchens and in their 
garbage pails, it makes it a contin- 
If we could all 
stop the feeding, there would be no 
breeding—no more filth flies to 
carry typhoid germs or other filth 
disease to our foods and homes.”’ 
Bailey on Cowards. 
No one who knows Senator Joseph 
W. Bailey will say that he lacks 
courage. Therefore it is natural that 
he hates cowards. The Senator re- 
cently expressed the opinion that 
very few men in Congress were venal 
or corrupt, but he 
most of them were cowards, afraid 
to live up to their convictions be- 
cause of the effect it might have on 
their constituents. The Senator con- 
demned vigorously this trait in men 
in public life and declared that when 
he found that he could not honestly 
exercise his convictions in Congress, 
ne would resign and retire to private 
life. 
Are you awfully tired with play, 
little girl; 
Weary, discouraged and sick? 
I’ll tell you the loveliest game in 
the world— 
Do something 
quick! 
for somebody, 
The best rose-bush, after all, is 
not that which has the fewest thorns, 
but that which bears the finest roses. 
—Henry van Dyke. 
declared that. 
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