The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1895-06-06
"FLY LOO" WITH A VENGEANCE.
How Scientist Did q Little Investigation
and Also Did Party of Friends.

time. Over near the bar two young
men were contributing their ssub-
stance to one of those cigar machines
where the nickel you drop zigzags
down among the steel pins in a way
which makes you think you are 60
ing to win a box of Henry Clays and
then gives you the laugh and drops
out of sight.
That's worse than fly loo," said
the fat man after he had watched
the game awhile.
whats fly LOOP" asked the man
with the green tie.
"Oh, it's little game we used to
play in British Guiana when l was
on the sugar plantation. Most of the
white people down there are Eng
lish, and draw poker is altogether
too American for them. Besides it's
so hot good part of the time that
there's no fun in anything that
keeps you moving. So they play fly
loo. You sit around table with
cool drink handy and cheroot
Everybody puts a lump of sugar on
the table in front of him and throws
shilling into the pot. Then every
body takes drink and smokes. "
But where does the game come
IMP"
I'm getting to that. Nobody does
anything till a fly lights on lump
of sugar. Then the man who owns
that lump takes the pot. Everybody
antes another shilling and takes an
other drink and waits for another
fly. If two flies light on two Jumps
at the same time, it's a jack pot, and
if two flies get on to the same lump
at the same time it costs another
shilling all around. It's a great
game for hot country You don't
have to think any or say anything
or do anything, and you can lose
enough in an evening to make it in
teresting."
The man with the green tie smok-
ed thoughtfully minute and then
| said: Don't believe I'd like game
like that. It's nothing but chance
no room for skill or science"
II used to think the same way"
said the fat man, but I got over it.
That was the winter the professor
was with us. He came from New
England and was collecting bugs.
He was quiet, pious looking chap,
sort of ministerial in his talk. But
he used to sit around the cafe a good
deal of evenings and was always
watching the game through his big
spectacles. One night after he had
squirmed around on his chair awhile
he asked us if he might come in. We
said yes, of course, and he pulled out
a lump of sugar and put up his shil-
ling.
well, sir, it wasn't ten seconds
before two flies bumped their heads
together getting ON to his lump. We
all put up another shilling apiece,
and the professor raked them in. In
less than a minute the Same thing
happened again, and then the flies
came in carriages to get on to that
lump of sugar. They were three
deep all over it till it looked like q
prize blackberry. You couldn't keep
'em off with club, and the old man
cleaned out the whole lot of us.
1.-THE professor was gone the next
morning, but he left a note for one
of the crowd that said as near as I
can remember:
have to thank you and your
friends for most charming and in
structive evening. Twas much graf
flied last night at the opportunity of
testing q little scientific theory. The
common house fly, or Musca domes-
tica, belongs to the family of "suck-
,ers," so called because they suck
their food through their proboscis.
When partaking of dry nutriment
Musca domestica first moistens it
with a secretion from the proboscis
so that it may be sucked up in liquid
form. 1t occurred to me that posi-
bly, by relieving Musca domestica of
the necessity for moistening it's food
it would be able to feed more rapid
ly and agreeably. I therefore ven
tured slightly to moisten the lump
of sugar had with me before plac-
ing it on the table. may say that I
was charmed with the immediate
and unmistakable demonstration of
the accuracy of my theory. Entomol-
ogy is delightful study"
You see, continued the fat man,
there's more science to fly loo than
you'd think. Here, waiter, bring us
two more of the same''-New York
Herald