The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1916-04-06
FLIES ARE WORSE
THAN REPTILES
The Snake Warns You Before He
Strikes and He Avoids the
HauntS of Men.
INSECT POISONS YOUR FOOD

OnC0 OuT TCOPlC OHuCTstaHu OaH9Ct
They VIII Perform Big Cleaning
Just as Army Doctors Had to
Do In the Tropics.
i: !: i: III. j: !:
- NE of the most
~M dangerous circum-
<$&,, stances about the
E@n" househy is that he
'@SYl\ %NS# looks harmless.
S#%$# If he looked like
SSW&# an alligator or a
/&$3# acknowledged"
4 fN bug, most Of US
{ would be deathly
{ afraid of him and
~ all his tribe. And
!: :: :: :: :: :: ::
H4.Lo\ we would take
CaZgsY ~ immediate action
NI41zgsZHLI/~ to cause his ex-
S~AI1H termination.
SSSAA But the fly
looks just as in
nocent as a glass of whisky-and the
warm, clear, amber intoxicant GER
tainly doesn't display the misery
to be found in it's depths. Yet he
probably is the more or less direct
cause of a hundred times as many
deaths yearly in the United States as
the alligator, the gila monster and the
rattlesnake. Wasps and centipedes are
harmless-and the deadly saurian and
reptiles mind their own business.
Preys on Ignorance.
The fly, on the contrary, butts into
everybody's business, spreading trou-
BILE as he goes. In the disguise Of
harmlessness he preys on ignorance
and carries into our homes the germs
of some of the most common and fatal
diseases that afflict this country.
This is the way he performs. The
fly feeds at spittoOn which has just
been used by a consumptive. On his
hairy feet and body he carries away
tuberculosis germs. Or he visits a
vault containing the eXCrement of
typhoid patient. Or he explores a dead
animal and loads up with putrefaction
bacteria. In each instance, usually,
he brings his poisonous presence into
our homes and rubs his filthy person
on the mouth Of the cream pitcher, on
the butter, on the bread, or on the loaf
sugar-or on the lips Of baby asleep
in her crib.
Reading such things as this sickens
the person of delicate stomach and is
disgusting to everyone. But you must
know the rotten truth for the protec-
ton of yourself and your family. If
you really will appreciate just how
filthy and dangerous the hOusefly is,
you will rise up with all the other good
people of the community and perform
such a cleaning as this town never
has seen. And you will keep it cleaned
up.
Army Camps Clean.
Have you ever visited regular
army camp, or even state militia en-
campment? Do you know why the
sanitary officers take such elaborate
precautions to destroy all waste mat
ter-why all garbage, excreta, used
bandages, etc, are burned and the
toilet and garbage cans so carefully
covered? 1t is because our army peo-
pie learned some frightfully costly les
sons at Chickamauga and in Cuba dur
ing the Spanish-American war and in
the Philippines a little later.
Thousands of our soldiers died of
typhoid fever and dysentery distributed
by flies. In fact more of the boys in
blue succumbed to disease than to
wounds afflicted by the enemy. How
did the doctors learn that the fly was
the real messenger Of death? By
clever scientific detective work. There
was Dr. William GOrgas, now a gen.
eral, who with highly trained corps
of scientists traced the sources of
these diseases until they found the
fly to be the guilty distributor. Now
he's marked for death by the army.