from New York Times
Down with Poison Ivy!
Ellis Parker Butler, who required a whole volume to prove the equation that pigs is pigs, is now firmly convinced that poison ivy is poison ivy, and, having the courage of a brave man, he yesterday took the first formal step for the organization in Flushing, where he lives, of a league for the suppression of that poisonous weed. Aside from campaign orators that is about the only thing in Flushing that has not been suppressed.
Mr. Butler's particular aversion to poison ivy is that it makes nervous any one coming in physical contact with it, and that such contact also precipitates in a marked degree a condition of drowsiness, which gradually intensifies until the victim becomes afflicted with malaria. Mr. Butler did not draw these conclusions without making an elaborate research on the subject. He had at his call nearly every registered physician in Flushing, and they agreed that he was doing a noble work in the interest of humanity.
Equipped with a technical line of talk on the subject, Mr. Butler next took up his pen and communicated with the government experts in the Department of Agriculture. What they told him convinced him that it was his duty to crusade against poison ivy.
A number of residents of Flushing met yesterday and outlined steps for the formation of the league. Among these interested in the work besides Mr. Butler are Clarence M. Lowes, President of the First National Bank, and Leon S. Case, who nearly succeeded in evicting mosquitos from Flushing.
