Jasper County Democrat, Volume 9, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 March 1907 — A Crazy Man’s Invention. [ARTICLE]

A Crazy Man’s Invention.

A famous New York alienist visited an insane asylum, where one of the inmates said to him: “I have Invented a patent fly catcher. Greatest thing in the world. Here, I’ll show you how It works.” The man took a sheet of paper and drew a birdcage. “That,” he said, “is a parrot’s cage—just a common cage—but you observe that on this side there is a door with a heavy iron knob and that there is another door on the other side,, also with a heavy iron knob. Now, you see, you take this parrot’s cage and put it on a pedestal fourteen feet high, the pedestal standing on a marble slab. Then I place a ladder on this side, reaching up to one door, and a ladder on the other side, leading to the other door. This is how it works: The unsuspecting fly conies along and climbs up the ladder on this side. It opens the door by means of the iron knob, walks through the cage and opens the door on the other side. Then it starts down the other ladder. That’s where we catch him!” the inventor continued excitedly. “That's where the invention is. That's where I shall get my money. You see, the fourth rung is missing in this second ladder, but the fly doesn’t know it, and he falls on the marble slab and breaks his neck.”