The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1882-04-27
THE EXACT SITUATION.
a Great Deal of Cheap Talk About Small
PON Going the Rounds.

Great Deal of Cheap Talk About Small
PoN Going the Rounds.
We were astOnished. both on Saturday
| and Monday, upon g6i z around the city
to hear from our merchants and business
men that their trade with the farmers
and country people, generally, was very
much lighter than on any previous
week, and, upon asking for the reason
| were uniformly answered that people
from tine country were greatly alarmed
at the reckless reports that had been
published in the Repository, in regard
to the prevalence of small pOX in the
city. The merchants expressed their
opinions of the course of that paper in
thus spreading reports, calculated to
work great damage to Canton abroad, in
terms more fOrcible than elegant, and
severely censured the managers of that
journal for endeayOring, for the sake of
supplying news, to enlarge and descant
upon what is really of comparatively
little import.
1t is true that the small pOx is in the
city, but it is confined to the house of
MIR. Lackey, where it first originated,
and since the death of the first patient,
the fifteen-year-Old girl, it has run its
course with the rest of the family, ex-
cepting in two or three mild cases of
yariOlOid ,and, at present writing, the en-
tire family is rapidly becoming con-
Yalescent, and with the approach of
warm weather all danger will disappear
In regard to the woman Mrs. Showers,
who died some days ago at the house of
Emanuel Miller, of what was supposed
TO be small pOX, opinions differ in re-
gard to the cause of her death. For
years she has not only been a drunken
but a dissOlute woman, indulging in
evil practices, that undermined her
health and poisoned her system, with
the yilest diseases, and Just previous to
her death she had been Oscillating be-
tween the bottle and the city prison,
and, when not in the latter, would sleep
in OuUhOuses, coal sheds and, in short,
wherever her drunken stupOr OyeTcame
her. When she finally brought up at
Miller she was exhausted and physi-
cally wreck, weak from exposure and
dissipation, so much so that she Teeled
and fell, striking her head violently
against stove or other hard body,
causing uncOnsciOusness,a and upon med
ical testimony, brought up at the last
meeting of the Board of Health, there is
much more reason to think that the poor
woman died of a complication of want,
exposure and broken down constitution
than of small pOX. When it was hinted
That she had the disease, she was carried
| out to coal house, on a cold night,
| where, covered up with a few rags, she
died alone some time through the night
Such treatment alone does not require
any extra disease to kill.
An erroneous impression prevails that
| she was employed as a nurse in the
Lackey cases, but this is not so. She
came in there and stayed fifteen OF
| twenty minutes, during the early stages
of the disease, when it was discovered
| that she was Intoxicated and OTdpTpf
out. This happened some weeks before
her death. The Board of Health, il
quarantining the Miller house, did per
| fectly right, as a matter of precautiOn
| for over care is better than negligence
in such matters, but the fact remains
| that up to this time no symptoms OF
| small pOX have manifested themselves
there or are likely to.
| Another report that Mrs. Lewis LOr
dOnne, living near Lackey's, lis down will
small pOX is denied in a written card
now before us, from DR.. Walker, tht
family physician, so that practically WI
have no small pOx among us, but thO
original cases, who are all now doing
| we'll.
We have gone at some length in thi
| explanation, as we deem it due to our
selves, as city, to have our neighbour
understand the exact situation, and al
rumOr flies fast, and grows as it travels
many persons doubtless think, limo
Gently, that an epidemic is raging here
| when the reverse is true. 1t is the
province of a newspaper to give all thu
| news, and the facts, but judiciOus eX
planatiOn of circumstances is also due
the public to guard against misappre
hensiOn and consequent injury, WheI
no grounds exist for such miscOnceptlOn