The vidette. (Iuka, Tishomingo County, Miss.) 1912-1967, 1917-04-26
THE BIOGRAPHY OF A FLY
BY GEORGIA ROBERTSON
Chairman Committee on Civic'
and Sanitation, Housekeeper's
Alliance, Washington, D. c.

Allianccs VdsniHStOpi ~ ~
Once was only tiny. white
oval egg, my mother laid me with
hundred others in stable dirt.
After few days I hatched out. a
little worm. / fed for week or
two on the fifth where | was, then
changed into a brown Iupa
Several days later | burst forth a
full-grown fy, with two gauzy
wings.
Since then | have travelled
about a good deal. My feet have
fine little fuzz on them; yoa can
not see it without magnifying
~<glass, but it is just splendid for
Rsatching germs of all kinds. They
gSlso cling to my wings.
You would not think SO (I Am
ESQ small), but l really can carry
5000, 900 bacteria OH my body at
once
What kind of bacteria ! All
kinds, but especially typhoid fever
and summer complaint, which
kills so many young children and
adults. You do not hear of sum
ner complaint in winter; ! am not
flying around then. leaving the
germs on the baby's bottle. or
lighting on it's lips, or falling into
the milk, or feasting in the sugar
bowl, or crawling over the dish
towels hanging in the kitchen, or
on the food there or in the pantry.
also carry tuberculosis germs.
in fact. / pick up a good many
kinds of germs, for love to fit
about, lighting on filth of any kind
/ can find. OF course. having
hatched ont in it and lived on it
the first part of my life, you could
not expect me to do otherwise.
But | also love to feast on candy,
cake, sweets, meat, cheese and
every kind of food.
/ am really quite ancient. being
one of the very few flies that lived
over last winter. ! hid myself in
somebody's kitchen.
cannot tell you anything about
my descendants, but very learn
ed scientist said / might have
los, ,s12, 500, 900, ,ooo,oo in one
summer. So there is no danger
of the fly crop failing, even
though only very few of us live
through the winter.
If people cleaned us out of
their houses. stores, markets and
stables, while it is still cold, so
we are stiff and inactive, and
burned us up and then kept every
thing clean, so there was no filth,
stable litter or decaying garbage
for us to lay our eggs in, we would
be. starved out and disappear.
If stable refuse and street
sweepings that we have laid our
eggs in is carted away and piled
up to decompose. we will hatch
out there, and torment the far
mers cattle, so the cows will give
less milk, and the horses will lose
some of their vitality, having to
fight us off all the time. We
make it a lot harder for the
horses every summer.
If you want to get rid of us, the
only way is to prevent us from
having any breeding places, By
keeping. all stable refuse screened
or treating it thoroughly every
little while with lime, to kill oul
eggs.
Some day people will become
enlightened enough so they viii
clean everything up thoroughly
early in the spring, brushing OF
every one of us that is clinging t
the electric light cords aud scale
cords in the markets and grocerie
and from the walls. They will
swat us without mercy unit
we disappear.
| suppose people would not lik
to have us leave fiyspecks o
their candy. cake and bread,
they knew the specks were on
excreta, and also that they migt
contain disease germs, but the
do not seem to know It. The
say, "Oh, it is just fly speck!
They do not seem to care if the
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