Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1918-07-25
TWO WAYS OF KILLING
BODY VERMIN.

In all armies in all ages, there
have been annoyances from body
veTmin. Where these pests start
from and why they start, only scien-
tific men may tell. In the great
civil war there was the body vermin,
bearing pestilential name. This
insect is as we'll remembered as
Marching Through Georgia" or
Dixie. Now the report comes
from the front line in France that
there is new kind of body vermin
nothing like the old civil war crea-
| ture. which is extremely annoying.
Il sometimes happens that men are
so buisily engaged in the trenches
that they cannot fight back. The
men in the second and third line
trenches can take care of themselves
The military way of fighting this
vermin is by the use OF powder and
| 4 paste. When men come out of the
trenches with dirty clothing, they
wash the same and hang them on the
bushes. or they Immediately put on
| clean clothing Which may have been
| within their reach and before doing
SO apply the poison powder to kill
| the vermin and before putting on
clean clothing a vermin killing
paste is spread along some of the
seams of the garment. This man
ner of killing the vermin is very eff
! fective. Some Canadian people
have discovered that light underwear
already soaked in a vermin-killing
solution could be made and shipped
to the soldier. The war department
az Washington has been considering
this dipped underclothing and the
state of Iowa has considered the
same. The state of Iowa bought
about a thousand of these suits and
had them dipped at Iowa City. and
sent them to Colonel Bennett, COM
mander of the One Hundred and
| SiXty-eighth regiment. If Colonel
| Bennett ami the war department re-
port thai Il ese suits OF clothing are
| Elective in killing the ias"c.: 'u;n
tie war department or he state will
proceed TO the manufacture and use
Of these suits. The suits are made
of light cotton material and consist
Of two pieces. They are soaked in
the vermin-killing liquid and the poi
son mold its own for three weeks.
| Then ii must be redippd. These
eiits are being Ilade in Iowa now in
urge numbers by the patriotic wom-
~ and all the Iowa men IL he
! Eighty-eighth division are to have
| these suits put up in packages and
SO wrapped with medicated cloth
and paper that the efficiency of the
chemical will not be destroyed by
the lapse of time These suits OF
! clothing are called cootie proof suits
| They do not extend below the knees
or the soldier. The government
process and cootie proof process are
much the same and both are equally
! effective. The war department of
the nation has communicated with
Mrs. Eastman of Iowa City as to the
| probable cost of $4,000 cootie-proof
suits and it is understood that Mrs.
| Eastman states that the suits can be
made for about sixty cents each and
can be dipped in the chemical pre-
paration for a dollar and a half
! hundred.
! The patriotic impulse of thewom
en- of the state suggests that the boys
! in the trenches ought to be made
comfortable as possible and they
think if cootie suit is any better
than the government powder and
paste then the cootie suit must be
adopted and used. From the sold
iers. themselves. in the trenches, not
word of complaint has come to
anyone. They are fighting the
enemies of civilization and will fight
the coolies if they have to.