The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1895-05-24
"FLY Loo"wITH A VENGEANCE.


| The fat man with the stubby mus
tache and the tall, blond man with the
| green tie smoked silently for some
time. Over near the bar two young
men were contributing of their sub
stance to one of those cigar machines
where the nickel you drop in the slot
zigzags down among the steel pins in a
way which makes you think you are
going to win 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.
"What's fly loo?" asked the man with
the green tie.
"Oh, it's a little game we used to
play in British Guaiana when was
on the sugar plantation. Most of the
white people down there are English,
and draw poker is altogether too Amer
lean for them. Besides, it's so hot a
good part of the time that there's no
fun in anything that keeps you NOV
ing. So they play fly loo You sit
around a,table witha cool drink handy
and cheroot. Everybody puts lump
of sugar on the table in front of him
and throws shilling into the pot.
Then everybody takes a drink and
smokes"
"But where does the game come IMP"
''I'm getting to that. Nobody does
anything till fly lights on a lump of
sugar. Then the man who owns that
lump takes the pot. Everybody antes
another shilling and takes another
drink and waits for another fly. If
two flies light on wolumps at the same
time, it's a jack pot, and if two flies get
onto the same lump at the same time
it costs another shilling all around.
It's great game for a hot country.
You don't have to think any or say
anything or do anything; and you can
lose enough in en- evening to make 1t
interesting"
The man with the green tie smoked
| thoughtfully few minutes, 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 got over it. That
was the winter the professor was with
u.s. He came from New England ans
was collecting bugs. He was quiet,
pious looking chap, sort of ministerial
the cafe good deal evenings, and was
always watching the game through
his big spectacles. One night after he
had squirmed around on his chair
while he asked us if he might come in.
We said yes, of course, and he pulled
out lump of sugar and put up his
shilling.
well, sir, it wasn't ten seconds be-
fore two flies bumped their heads to-
gether getting on to his lump. We all
put up another shilling apiece, and the
professor raked them in. In less than
minute the same thing happened
again, and then the flies came in car
riages to get onto that lump OF sugar.
They were three deep all over it, till it
looked like 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 note for one OF
the crowd that said, as near as can
remember:
"I have to thank you and your
friends for a most charming and In
structive evening. was much graft
fed last night at the opportunity OF
testing little scientific theory. The
common housefy, or musca domestica,
belongs to the family of suckers So
called because they suck their food
through their proboscis. When partak-
ing of dry nutriment musca domestlca
first moistens it with a secretion from
the proboscis. so that it may be sucked
up in liquid form. 1t occurred to me
that possibly by relieving musca do
mestica of the necessity for moistening
it's food it would be able to feed more
rapidly and agreeably. therefore
yentured slightly to moisten the lump
of sugar had with me before placing
it on the table. l may say that was
charmed with the immediate and un-
mistakable demonstration of the accu-
racy of my theory. Entomology is
delightful study"
.sYou see,'' continued the fat man,
ssthere's more science TO fly loo than
you'd think. Here. waiter, bring us
two more of the same. IN. Y. Herald.
The Difference.