Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1915-08-11
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!. WHY WE SHOULD MAKE !.
sf WAR ON THE FLY. !.
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Just how long the little. familiar
house fly has been among us we are
not told, nor does it concern us here
to know from whence he came. For
aught we know he may be one of the
Offsprings of the many plaques visit
ed upon Pharaoh in that long ago
when plaques and pests and other
nuisances were multiplied into de-
structive armies over night. For in
deed his extraordinary power Of re-
production seems one of his chief
characteristics, while his never-end-
ing desire to survey the world from
the highest part Of some bald head
marks him also as one of the chief
instruments in the deliverance Of the
Jews. However important may have
been his political usefulness or relig-
ious Affiliations, he has served his day
and generation and must go.
In almost every State, and in al
most every community, he has been
arraigned before the bar of justice
and found guilty of the most heinous
crimes, and the slogan, swat the
Fly" has gone forth until now he has
scarcely friend in the wide world
to harbor him.
Until just recently he was regard
ed only as nuisance, harmless in
sect that disturbed our dreams only
during the day, or, crawling on the
nose, awakened the sleeping babe. 1t
was while he enjoyed this unlimited
confidence. and had the unrestricted
use of the home that he measured his
greatest success. While unsuspected
Of harm he eXacted a life from al
most every home in the land and
measured his swiftness by the sure
ness Of his deadly stroke.
Until the multiplied rays of the
microscope revealed his hideous
form, he was not altogether insight
ly, but those magic rays disclosed
him clad in a hairy fur, reeking in
filth and CRIME, capable of boarding
up millions Of poisonous parasitic
tender lips Of the nursing babe. Not
only is he now hideous in form, but
also, in studying his life and habits,
he becomes absolutely revolving to
the sensitive and refined. And, if
for no other reason than that Of his
place of birth. he should be outlawed
in every country and every cline.
Born amid the putrefying eXcrements
of man and beast, he wallows and
luXuriates in this revolving, inde-
scribable filth until he comes to ma
turity. Having a relish for ferment-
ing putrilage, he devours great
quantities, and in an incredibly short
time emerges, fully equipped, and
enters at once upon his life's mis-
sion, spreading filth, disease and
death.
He spends a short time on the top
of manure pile polishing his body
and wings in a pretense at cleanli-
ness; then he enters the nearest
kitchen for has first meal away from
home. There he examines the meats
and vegetables and tastes the bread
before it is fairly made. Being an
epicurian by birth, he is lured into
the dining room by the tempting vi
ands spread tastily before him.
There, pcrched upon plate of bis
cult, he surveys the field Of his ope-
rations and makes straight for the
food nearest him. This filthy insect,
weighted with the CRIME of revolving
putrefaction, trails his Shiny form
across the butter, and you eat it;
this vile, loathsome vermin, freighted
with the poisonous germs of decay
ing cOrpses, takes a bath in the milk,
and you drink IL; before his hairy
coat is fairly dry from wallowing in
tubercular sputum or typhoid eXcre-
ment, his succulent form is acciden-
tally wrapped up in the pie, and you
swallow him-flth, CRIME, tuhercu-
losis, and all; and then in the next
breath, implore high heaven to pro-
tect your home from harm.
These things are shocking to our
senSiblities and repugnant to refined
tastes, but they are nevertheless in
controvertible facts-facts that we
meet with almost daily and in almost
every home. They present a prob
lem that should not be stunned, but
solved.
Not only is this odious insect vile
and filthy, but also he is dangerous
as well. lie is the chief and most nn-