The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1912-07-13
DEADL|EST LIVING THING.

Common House Fly More Danuerou
Than cocane-Maddened Neqr,
with an Automatic Revolver
:: Man Must Kill The Fly, or tn.
Fly Will Kill the@Man.
ST. Louis Republic:
Either man mustkill the fly o.
the fly will kill the man" The aboy
sentence printed in blazing red let
ters on placards is being used Ii
!. many American towns and cities ii
the war against the#typhold fly.
In 1900 more than so 900 people in
this country died of typhoid fever
Flies killed practically all of them.
{: Not any fanged, claWed, yenomous
4 and stinging fly that#came and went
mysteriously. The death dealers were
innocent looking little house flies that
4. swarm over manure heaps, alleys,
kitchen windows and milk crooks.
That same year about 406O folks
died Of gunshot wounds. Railroads
killed $3.50 during the same twelve
months. Everyone knew that murders
| ftjto tLJl1I Ot&O ttISiaSIAtas WtlG =Ht1ptUS
to remove the population Everyone
knew that some man or woman in
the next block had the typhoid, but
il didn't worry them. They. were
used to typhoid.
A baby sat in g high-chair pushed
Tip close to a screenless window He
was a bottle baby" The bottle
mad been scalded and the milk had
been sterilized. Apparently the baby
should have been safe enough. A
| fly came up out of@the alley filth
It lit on the bottle and the hands of
the baby. Ten days later a little
white coffin was carried out of the
house and placed ina snowy hearse
drawn by milk-white horses. Alas!
| RFlies neIp to keep the graveyards
fate the grass in the graveyards
green. Here is typhoid as an iIS
| stance. People used to watch the
milk supply only when they were try
ing to dodge typhoid. There was a
house upstream from another where
half family lay sickWith this burn
ing disorder. Their milk supplies
! were from different dairies
There was no cnanee of infected
sewage, as water Gees not run up
hill. The wind was#blowing up the
valley. No harm in# that, as germs
do not ride On the wind to the dis
lance of a mile or more. Flies do.
Musca Domesticus MighbroW name
|ofsthe fly took asffltiiie saantef one
morning, was caugh III the wind cur.
rent and landed in the upstream
ieighbor's milk bottle before noon.
IN a few days there was another ty-
phoid-infected house in the valley
Musca Domesticus is about the
leadliest creature that craWls, sWims
or flies He is ii. the same class
with the dog whose jaws drip hy-
Irophohia He ranks with the tim
IN his fat head. He is as dangerous
as a cocaine-maddened negro with
an automatic revolver.
You can crush him with a tap of
sheAfinger if you ean catch him, bSf
a4, multipl1es by the million, the biln
ion, the trillion and quadrillion, and
every one of these quadrillions
carries a load of germs around on
3is hairy, glairy body. Catching
aim is just the trouble He is SO
common that he IS looked upon as
one of the necessary evils CT SUM
mer.
Georgia, Florida, Louisiana and
Texas began fighting the house fly
months ago. Tennessee is offering
sold medals to the champion fly mur-
derers of the state. Kansas was the
none of the first state wide campaign
against the fly. New York City has
started in to keep the summer death
rate down among the children by
viping out the breeding places of
The fly.
Two or three years ago i. 0.
Howard, chief entcmclogist of the
United States Department of Agri-
culture, said: "Ile insect we now
call the house fly should in the
future be termed the typhoid fly
ID order to call attention to the dam
ger of allowing it to breed uncheck-
cd
The country took him at his word.
The term typhoid fly has come, in
to general use and much of the mys-
terry that once hung. over the spread
offs that fever has been dispelled.
Filth, flies and fever became a sort
Of an unho1y trinity
The house fly is the terror that
5talketh by MONDAY. He and his
multiple feet dripping with germs are
all over the premises. He plants
few germs III your bread. He buries
them in the butter on your table.
Out in the milk bottle he browns
a few millions of them, but they are
hale and healthy. He soWs the seeds
Of death in and On everything he
touches.
Last March if you had killed the
first fly you saw you would have in
fact killed 5,ooo,GoG,o0o,oo0 of these
pests of the community. They
breed faster thar an adding ma
cline can keep track Of the in
crease. Mathernatielans have spent
weeks figuring how long it would
take for the fly tribe to literally
inherit the earth if they had no