Thursday, March 26, 2020

The "It's Happened Before...And, It Will Happen Again!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Still trying to stay inside the house, although it's driving me nuts!  Needing something new to do, I began to design and cut some of my stained glass I have in my basement workshop in hopes of making a panel to sell at Kathy's Corner in Northeast, Maryland.  After a few hours of cuts and bleeding, I stopped and sat in my office chair and began to search the archives of Lancaster Newspaper Online.  Since I found this site about a year ago, I have enjoyed searching different topics as far back as 1796 when Lancaster's first newspaper was printed.  My search today was something known as the Spanish Influenza.  I found one of the earliest listings in The News Journal, July 16, 1918 which had a headline that read "WELL NOURISHED NEED NOT FEAR SPANISH GRIPPE".  Story told of the flu making heavy inroads upon the German troops, but will not affect American Army troops abroad.  The reason listed for this revelation was that they have an immunity to it since they are well fed!  A professor at the University of Paris told a representative in the United States that this flu is noting like the 1889 epidemic, though the symptoms are much the same.  The attack comes suddenly.  The temperature rises to 40 degrees Centigrade (104 degrees Fahrenheit) or more.  The face reddens and there is great exhaustion and violent headache.  Recovery comes within three or four days, the final stage being one of abundant perspiration.  The patient feels rundown afterward for several days, perhaps even two or three weeks.  I followed the newspapers until I reached the headline; "FLU" PEAK AT LAST REACHED; DEATH RATE DECLINES SOME."  This story was found in the Monday, October 21, 1918 Intelligencer Journal.  Interesting stories and sounds much like was is published in the newspaper of today.  I have posted a few of the stories if you care to read what it was like when the Spanish Flu hit in 1918.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.


This is from Tues., July 16, 1918
Click on image to enlarge it.
This is from Thursday, September 12, 1918
This is from Tuesday, September 17, 1918
This is from Monday, September 23, 1918
This is from Thursday, September 26, 1918
Sorry for the extremely small type! 
This is from Friday, October 4, 1918.
Thjis is from Monday, October 7, 1918
This is from Monday, October 21, 1918.  My final newspaper article.  This article  I
deleted the bottom portion so you can only read those who died in the first half
of the alphabet.  If I had copied the entire story, it would have been too small to read.

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