Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 146, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 June 1918 — Page 3

fHERE is a photograph shown at Health Exhibitions which many people at first sight take,’for a picture of the crusts on the surface of theanoon, or of the canals on the planet Mars. What it really shows is a circular plate containing a gelatin culture of the consumption germ the tubercle bacillus. This plate to begin with was a perfect blank a tabula vasa, as the ancient Romans used to call their tablet before writing on it. But there soon developed on this gelatin plate letters about as ominous as those which the Prophet Daniel pointed out to Belshazzar at his royal feast. Here is the way of it: The laboratory doctor had put on that plate a fly that had got his feet stuck in the spittle of a consumptive; and he had then covered the whole with a glass jar so that the fly could not get aw’ay. This insect, thus heavy footed, then promenaded all over the plate. Twenty-four hours later colonies of the consumption germs, made up of uncountable millions of those tubercle bacilli, developed on its tracks. You may think I exaggerate when I compare .this fact of the gelatin plate with the Prophet Daniel and the writing on the wall, says a writer in the Detroit Free Press. Well, be that as it may, I ask you only to reflect how consumption has up to this time been carrying off every third or fourth of us between adolescence and maturity; that in all the wars of the nineteenth century (including those of Napoleon), 14,000,000 succumbed, while 3,000,000 succumbed to consumption, the captain of the men of death; that the advanced consumptive day by day coughs and spits out several thousand millions of the tubercle bacilli ; that consumption, besides being a disease, is the most dreadful economic and social degeneracy in civilization; that this great White Plague" exists largely by reason of human supineness and neglect of the simplest precepts of hygiene and sanitation. The Babylonian king did not heed the warning which lay in the writing on the wall. By heeding the lesson that lies In that little gelatin plnte we shall be very far on the way, we and our fellow men and women, of banishing the tuberculosis which it represents from human experience and from off the face of the earth/ Of course, flies are not- the only agency in the spread of tuberculosis; for they are active but a few months of the year, whilst that disease is contracted all the year round. Flies Swell Infant Death Rate. It is certain also that flies help greatly to swell the Infant death rate, which is greatest in the fly season. There are few more congenial culture media for germs than milk, especially amid the uncleanliness which obtains In the houses of very many poor people. especially in the tenements. This fluid easily becomes contaminated by flies and with the noxious matter that is continually clinging to their hairy feet, their spongy bodies and their fluffy wings. Tuberculosis is thus certainly contracted by children, as are the various forms of dysentery, practically all of which are germ ailments. Breast fed Infants seldom have such diarrheas, whilst bottle fed babies have them all too frequently. Typhoid fever is so often transmitted by flies that doctors speak of this Insect as the typhoid fly. It pollutes food and drink, especially your milk, butter and sugar by means of the material which

True Meaning of "Boomerang."

Boomerang has beaten all records of words turned Inside out. The term does not convey thb Idea of retribution, as the boomerang returns not at the thrower’s peril, but to his further use. No Australian would make that blunder. Colonel Miles, the allied expeditionary forces’ chief chaplain during the war, used the term right when he declared: We are your boomerang, flung out by you to conquer a continent and now returning to your feet for another throw. __-

Insects That Convey Disease

Common Fly Is the Chief Offender, Bat There Are Many Others That Are Also a Serious Menace to Health

it carries thence from sources of contamination and of the refuse which it transfers from rotting vegetables, meat and fish. Twenty-five per cent of flies breed in manure heaps. Besides the diseases mentioned flies have been brought to the bar on indictments for having spread cholera, lockjaw, trachoma (granular lids), anthrax (the stable fly is here guilty), and something like a dozen more germ diseases. The ordinary Ay may swallow the eggs of tapewormsl and other intestinal parasites, and \then distribute those eggs where they'may do hurt to humankind. Before considering other insects I had better state more clearly just how these pests perform their part in disease dissemination. The germs may stick to the bodies of the insects. Or the germs may be eaten by the insects and deposited upon human food and drink with their excreta. Or the Insects may eject the germs from their mouths upon the skins of uncleanly people who do not bathe regularly. Or the Insects may die after eating the germs; and the bodies of the former may fall into the food; or the dead Insect bodies may dry up, crumble, be spread in dust and be either Inhaled or Injected by human beings. Or the insects (such as the mosquito) may inject into the host with their sting diseased blood which they have previously sucked from a previous sufferer (such as a malaria patient). Mosquito Fever. Doctors prefer to speak of malaria as mosquito fever, for, as everyone now knows, it is the species of mosquito called Anopheles, which is solely responsible for the propagation of this disease. Anopheles breeds in still water, in moist sand or moss, in pools by the sides of open streams, in permanent accumulations of water of every sort — Irrigation ditches, stagnant water where there is green scum, in beds of old canals, in old horse troughs and the like. When the blood of a malaria sufferer is sucked into the stomach by anopheles the malaria parasite in that blood undergoes development; and the products of this process enter the mosquito’s salivary glands and are ejected into the system of the next person stung. If this latter unfortunate has not yet had malaria he thus contracts the disease unless his natural antigerm forces are able to destroy- the parasite before it can do any mischief in his body. Naturally then, the prevention of malaria depends on the destruction of all breeding places within the radius of a mile. The way to do this is to drain or fill in with earth, or to cover the surfgee of any water with a thin film of kerosene. Houses must be screened. Anopheles bites only after sundown; and only the Lady Anopheles does the mischief. Here, as

Stand Your Ground.

Remember, each one must bear his or her own burden. Not a soul is free. We should keep this truth constantly before us, and then honestly try to do our best. Furthermore we should cultivate the habit of smiling. It will help us when all the world seems awry. A good-natured face is always a welcome sight, for it makes us forget our own wearisome affairs. Indeed, the woman who learns to laugh can piaster any problem that confronts her.—Excharge.

THE RENSSELAER DAILY REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

elsewhere in the cosmos, is the female of the species more dreadful than the male. Spreads Typhus. The insect which in highbrow literature is termed Pediculus vestimentorum, but which in plain language is the louse, is responsi-

ble for the spread of sev- . eral grave diseases. Some lice which had been biting typhoid patients were first immersed in a solution of mercury bichloride; then they were put in sterile water. Next they were ground in a sterile mortar and the resultant material was inoculated into animals and were developed on culture media. By this means typhoid germs were demonstrated in those lice. We have all read how dreadful an executioner was the typhus fever in the earlier months of this present war, in Serbia and in the Balkans generally; it is the louse which is the chief disseminator of the typhus germ. The bedbug has from time immemorial been obnoxious enough by just being a bedbug. But he is now proven to be much more than this. Undoubt-

edly cases of smallpox are spread by this Insect in cheap lodging houses, perhaps more frequently than by any other means. And were it not for the frequent vaccinations ordered by health authorities epidemics of this disease would probably not be rare. Consumption germs have been found in bedbug blood; also the perms of other diseases. This insect may live for weeks without food. During the winter it will become comatose and will weather the winter like any other hibernating creature. It will continue its existence, will demonstrate its wlll-to-live, against the hardest kind of luck, from season to season, in lumber camps, summer houses, empty apartments and the like. Fleas Spread Bubonic Plague. The chief iniquity of the flea lies in Its transmission of the germ of the bubonic plague. The roach has also been proved an infection conveyer. We must. mention also Rocky Mountain fever which has for several years occurred during the spring months in Montana and the neighboring states. The germ of this disease is transmitted from cattle to man by the tick, which Insect is the responsible agent also for Texas or cattle fever. I have tried to present here the essential facts about the Insect transmission of disease. My article would, however, appear to be like the play of Hamlet with Hamlet left out; for I have written nothing about how to deal with such insect infection spreaders. Space has not permitted this; nor is it necessary. For every citizen’s health department, town, city, or state, will on application, supply full printed directions. Or such directions will be sent, without charge, by the United States public health service of Washington, p. C., or of the United States bureau of agriculture, Washington, D. C.

His Resignation Emphatic.

Another yarn from the mercury lighted editorial rooms of Park Row. It was six in the morning. The city editor was there. A reporter came Jn. He took off his coat, walked over and picked up a chair and beat it to fragments against a post. This chair finished, he picked up another and went through the same process. Finally the gasping editor called out: “Here, what are you doing?” “I’m resigning, . you gray-halred idiot,” was the reply, “and I am resigning in a way that will make you remember me until your dying day. And after you are dead I want a piece of the rope.” Then he marched out and the city editor got him later in the day by telephone and offered to double his salary, but he wouldn’t come back. He has joined his colors. He will make a fighter, no doubt. —New York Sun.

As It Was on Earth.

Not long ago an old lady friend died. Mary Agnes, who lived in the same building, had for some reason been chased from the steps by the old lady, and so she got the Impression that the old lady was always chasing little children. So one day after the woman died Mary asked another woman in the building if she thought that the old lady was an angel now. “I hope so,” was the reply. Then little Mary said, “Well, I bet she is chasing all the little angels around up there.”

HELP FARMERS HOLD THE LINE

Town Men Called as Patriotic Duty to Assist With the Crops. CAN’T WIN WITHOUT FOOD Can't Produce Sufficient Food Unless High School Boys and Town Volunteers Are Used to Utmost in Every Community. (Prepared by the United States Department of Agriculture.) If one part of the western front fails to hold, no matter at what cost, when the command has been issued that no ground must be given, the freedom of the world, your freedom, your family’s security, are imperiled. If one state fails to hold its part of the line back home —fails to produce Its part of the' food crops needed for war purposes—the strength of the battle front is weakened. And as it is weakened your home becomes less secure. That is the personal meaning of the situation. The gravest period of human history may be described in terms of a popular American expression—and practice. Civilization endures or declines, fredom flourishes or fails, just as that line on the western front “delivers the goods,” just as the production line back home “delivers the goods,” just as you “deliver the goods.” Will You Deliver? The western line is making delivery. What about your state, your county, your town—you? It is necessary in every county and community for emergency farm labor needs this summer and fall to be supplied by emergency workers from the towns of that county and community as far as possible. Which means that you—a town man of past farm experience—are called, as a patriotic duty, to work on nearby farms this summer and fall at such intervals and for such periods as local conditions may Which means that you—a farmer — must make the best of this emergency help as a patriotic duty. We can’t win the war without food; we can’t pro-i duce food without 1 farm labor; we can’t have sufficient farm labor this year unless high school boys and town volunteers are used to the utmost in every community, Idlers forced to go to work, every community’s entire energy turned to farm work during the “peaks” of cultivation and harvest. Some town people have had this attitude : “Oh, ft is hard work on farms, and the pay is smaller than I earn in town. Why should I lay off from my town job even for a short time and do farm work? Why can’t some one else do it? One person doesn’t amount to much. So what does it matter whether I do any farm work In this county or lot?”

Of course, if you were the only person in all the United States to have a “let-the-other-fellow-do-it” viewpoint It would make no difference. But suppose the other fellow feels the same way. All it would amount to, if that sort of thing continued, would merely be-rour losing the war. That is the Importance of your part. Some farmers have had this attitude: “Oh, it is hard to make crops with haphazard help—boys and town volunteers. Why can’t some other farmers use that sort of help? One farm doesn’t amount to much. What does it matter whether I keep up my production by using this emergency labor or not?” As in the case of the town man, it would be a trivial thing If you were the only one. But the other farmer may conclude he Is safe in “laying down on the job" since you are going tojdo your part. A continuance of that would merely mean —our losing the war. That is the importance of your part. The only course that la safe and certain is for every town person of farm experience to go to work on farms in tils community, when and where he is needed during the heavy periods this summer and fall; for every farmer to

BOMBS FOR THE HUNS

The photo shows Canadian detonat>g b<mbs in the reserve lines.

use all the help of this kind that he needs and can secure. Duty Is the Word. It will be more dr less inconvenient in each Instance. It will be more or less of a hardship to each party. The war Is chock-full of inconveniences and hardships. The trenches are not places of ease and comfort and financial reward, and the fighters have not fared forth upon joy rides and pleasure parties. They charge into hell, not because it is.a pleasant thing to do, but because it is their duty so to do under the grim circumstances of war. The town man must go to the farm for precisely the same reason. The farmer must accept him for precisely the same reason. It is a little enough thing for either of them to do by comparison with the things the men at the front are doing. lit isn’t a work to be left to the other state; it must be done in your state. It isn’t a work to be left to the other

SOLDIERS OF WOMAN’S LAND ARMY

The comforts and pleasures of social life have been foregone by many patriotic girls who are now busy tilling the soil to raise bountiful crops for Uncle Sam. These two farmerettes riding their teams back to the barn after a strenuous day’s work in the fields are members of the New Jersey division of the Woman’s Land Army of America.

ARE OVER THERE FOR FIGHT’S SAKE

Yankees as Eager to Get to Front as Boy Is to Go to Circus. Y. M. C. A. MAN LAUDS MEN American Soldiers Full of "Pep” and Keep Huns Guessing—Tells How Men Were Rushed to Picardy Line. a ' ■ Washington.—“ They are over there for the sight’s sake. In three months in France, although I encountered thousands of American soldiers and talked personally with hundreds, I did not meet one who wasn’t just as keen to get to the front as —well —as a boy is to get to the. circus.” Any pacifist, pro-flerman, or other nondescript laboring under the impression that the American troops are fighting because they have to, rather than because they want to, would be quickly disillusioned after a chat with Ralph W. Harbison, Pittsburgh business man, member of the national war work council of the Y. M. C. A. and head of a commission representing that body, which has just returned from a special mission to France. Mr. Harbison spent 26 hours with the Rainbow division under heavy fire in a certain one of the American sectors. “This used to be a quiet part of the front,” Mr. Harbison explained. “That is, it was quiet until the Yankees came. Among the troops who had previously held these trenches there had been less than a score of casualties in over a year. The Boche moved about pretty much as he pleased—and really led a placid life. Keep Huns Guessing. “Now things are different. Yankee Ingenuity is fairly outdoing itself to make life miserable for Fritz. Worrying him is the daily—and nightlypastime. i “The thing that you cannot get away from is the high morale of our men. It fairly exudes from them. They have lots of ‘pep,’ are up on their toes every minute and are sending over ten shells for every three that come our way. “These Americans also seem to have a monopoly on initiative. They keep Fritz on the jump and have him guessing all the time. But the thing that makes you proudest is that they are playing the game like real sportsmen and in their conversation and conduct even in the front lines reflect the highest ideal of America today.” The determination and grit of the men, Mr. Harbison said, were well

county and the other town; It must b« done In your county and your town. It isn’t a work to be done by the other fellow—it must be done by you.

CRAWLS 3 MILES TO PAY BET

Penalty Paid by a California Banker in Settling Golf Wager. Oakland, Cal. —Crawling three miles on his hands and knees to the accompaniment of hysterical mirth from his wife and the boastful taunts of his golf opponent was the penalty that EL A. Mosher, vice president of the Central National bank, had to pay in settling a golf bet with William Cavalier, wellknown stock broker. “I bet I can beat you and do the whole 18 holes in 76 this morning,” was the challenge made at the Claremont links. Cavalier lost no time in taking up the wager. “I’ll take your bet, but I’m so sure that you can’t that if you lose ypu must crawl over the entire course on your hands and knees and buy a thousand-dollar Liberty bond." The terms were accepted. Mosher lost, crawled and bought the bond.

illustrated in the story of the "Grim Private.” He was encountered in one of the forward Y. M. C. A. stations located in a shell-torn village at the end of a communication trench, and his grimness was In striking contrast to the gayness of the men around him. “Fritz got my corporal yesterday,” he explained. “He was also my best friend.” His fists clenched over the rifle in his hands. “But I go back into the trenches at four in the morning. I’m going to get three Boches. My corporal was worth more than that of them, but three-will begin to even things up.” He got them. It was shortly after Mr. Harbison’s visit to the Rainbow division that General Pershing put at the disposal of the French the entire military resources of America “over there.” Mr. Harbison encountered some of the American divisions as they were being rushed to the front to fill what we now know to have been almost a breach In the allied line. Y. M. C. A. Beats the Troops. • In this sudden movement of troops, Mr. Harbison said, the American Y. M. C. A. made a remarkable recordin one Instance orders came to a certain American division to proceed at once to a point 200 miles distant. The brigadier general In command informed the divisional Y. M. C. A. secretary. Fourteen Y. M. C. A. automobile canteens were immediately loaded with chocolate, food, tobacco and other supplies. When the troops arrived .at their destination they found the Y. M. C. A. men—the same ones that had served them before in the 200-mile distant camp—awaiting them with huge quantities of post exchange supplies and several thousand gallons of piping hot coffee and cocoa, which was given away free.

“Lonely” Soldiers Are Liable to Court-Martial

Anniston, Ala. —Soldiers who advertise in newspapers, magazines and other periodicals as being “lonely” are subject to trial by court-martial and severe punishment, according to orders issued from divisional headquarters at Camp McClellan. Upon investigation military officials have found that certain soldiers have appealed to the sympathies of the public through such advertisements and have • been flooding the regimental post offices with answers to such appeals.