Life, 1913-06-26 · page 35 of 45
Life — June 26, 1913 — page 35: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page combines public health advocacy with period advertising. The left column features Dr. Charles E. Pace arguing that flies, despite their reputation, are beneficial "sanitarians" that consume filth and prevent disease through cleanliness rather than their absence. He dismisses the popular "fly-swatting" movement as futile and argues that yellow fever and similar diseases result from poor sanitation and diet, not fly contact. The main illustration shows a figure (appearing to be Death or a similar allegorical character) with an angel and coffin, captioned "Gets 'Em Coming and Going"—a dark joke suggesting that disease claims people regardless of prevention efforts. The right side advertises Elgin watches with separate models for men and women, claiming each suits "every individual requirement." The page reflects early-1900s progressive public health messaging promoting systematic sanitation over individual actions like swatting.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A Word For The Fly Flies are our fellow-sanitarians. Oceans of filth are by them consumed and transformed into the tissues of their healthy little bodies in the course of the “fly season.” When you kill one fly early in the season, you kill a swarm of the busy little scavengers that would have been helping te prevent disease by helping us to “clean up.” Whenever we make everything and every corner and place clean, we have said good-bye to the flies: no longer needed and with nothing to subsist on, they are doomed. The clean-up at Panama, in New Or- leans and in Cuba brought about as a matter of course improvement in health of the residents at those points. But, not from absence of fly bites or mosquito Lites, but solely from the banishment of filth and filthy surroundin; Yellow fever is a disease of wrong dict, chiefly, a diet not suited to the tropics. We have cases of yellow fever, though, right here at the North, and even in mid- winter, just from wrong- and over- ¢. But up here we call it jaundice, sometimes malaria; but the yellow color is precisely the same as in yellow fever at the tropics, and the disease is prac- tically of the same nature. The effort to banish flies by swatting here and there one, is about like at- tempting to drain the ocean by dipping it up with a teaspoon! Not one fly in ten millions ever lights on a human being; and when one does the contact is harm- less. At any rate the swatting scheme is as futile as it is absurd. Cuares E. Pace, M. D. cal Try One of Our Dry Varieties Regular Martini—Dry (medium) Martini—Brut (very dry) Manhattan—Regular Manhattan— At all dealers THERE are MANY MODELS of the PERFECT WATCH The high, unvarying Elgin standard of ex- cellence characterizes all the various models and styles—carefully planned to meet every individual requirement. Men and women in every walk of life will find an Elgin Watch exactly suited to their needs. LADY ELGIN —here illustrated—the perfect watch for women. The smallest watch made in America. Double roller escapement. Di- ameter corresponds with that of the new 5-cent piece now being coined by the U.S. Mint. Can be used on a bracelet or as a pendant. ‘Tiny, beautiful and most de- pendable. LORD ELGIN —also illustrated—with double roller safety action, An extremely thin watch for men, Without a peer in dignified appearance and perfect timekeeping. For railroad men—VERITVAS, B. W. RAYMOND and FATHER TIME each a standard in its class. The G. M. WHEELER, a sturdy, well- built, handsome watch. ‘There are 40,000 jewelers in the United States selling Elgin Watches, ‘They are known as Elgincers. Go to your jeweler, Elginecr. Ask him'to show you an Elgin Watch—the model best adapted to your needs. ELGIN NATIONAL WATCH CO. Elgin, Mlinois GETS ‘EM COMING AND COING comicbooks.com