Mower County transcript., 1908-09-02
ALL ABOUT TfItEE=LY
OF INTEREST PARTICULARLY TO
! THE 5ALDHEADs. -
lts Intelligence Truly an Interesting
and Exasperating study-Believes
That Mankind Was Created
for Its Amusement.

for Its Amusement.
1.-The common domestic fly" said
man who is no scholar but has man
aged to pick up many interesting facts,
rs altogether too common and too
domestic. She is one of the most in
teresting animals"
"You don't mean animals" a listen
er broke in, "a fly is not an animal"
"Then she must be vegetable or
mineral" said the first speaker. "Call
her whichever you please, but she is
one of the most interesting creatures
extant.
IAN Industrious female fly lays
about 100000 eggs. There are no
tndolent fles and few males. The fly
does not set after laying; if she did
she would be retired from her wonted
activity during longer or shorter
periods of incubation. Her eggs hatch
without motherly attention, and 1t Is
seldom that one fails to hatch.
"The intelligence of fes is an inter-
esting and exasperating study. One of
the ordinary ways of trying to kill
flies is to fold a newspaper in the
shape of heavy fiat pad and whack
at them with it when they are sitting
still.
Now, the fly is familiar with the
scientific fact that if she sits perfectly
still the descending paper will make
an air cushion in front of it that 80
times out of 100 will prevent her from
being crushed. The concussiom mo-
mentarily stuns her and she falls to
the floor apparently dead, but in a
few minutes she has recovered and is
again on the job.
That's why VIXEN you strike at
fly hard enough to- sp1atter the butter
all over the walls she is able to reap
pear SO quickly ON the rim of the
sugar bowl.
when out not for food but merely
for the fun of tantaIizing you the fly
knows when she has had enough. Then
she sits down on dark spot in the
carpet and watches you prance around
the room looking for her on the walls.
"A very good way to catch flies is to
distribute fly paper and p1atters Of
poison on the tables and window stills.
No matter how thick the afes r'are
where this Is done, their number will
be quickly reduced You can easily
prove this by counting the flies you
have caught. 1t fs a great comfort,
when there a few million flies in the
air and more coming to count up your
catch and know that dozen or so will
never pester you any more.
This method Of getting rid of flies
Is often employed in restaurants. 1t
was the method used in the railroad
restaurant where a passenger hur.
ried in for refreshment, glanced along
the display of pies and said:
"'Give me a piece of this buckle
berry,
"That ain't huckleberry,' said the
! waiter girl, waving her hand over the
pie; it's custard.'
when we were children we were
taught to believe that a fly's foot was
wonderful part of creation-that
when it was placed fiat upon the cell
ing the weight of the fly pulled II
! away in the center and made a tiny
| vacuum and that the pressure of the
atmosphere around it, in accordance
with law of nature, held the fly from
falling. Several human flies broke
their necks trying to do the same trick
| with artificial flies feet before it was
! discovered that if flies kept their fee
clean they couldn't walk on ceilings.
Files believe that mankind was
created for their amusement, and 1
has always been question with mt
which gave fly the more solid en-
joyment-to buzz around your nos,
and make you get up a few hours
earlier in the morning than you wan
to, or to poster you in the daytim,
until you rage around the room with
paper slapper in your hand while sh'
watches you from behind doc
hinge"