Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-01-12
GRIP ON THE WANE.
The Influenza Epidemic in Europe
Shows Signs of Abatement,
TICS ARMY In THE HOSPITAL.
Sad Effects Of the Discovery That Whisky
Prevents the Disease.
OTHER FOREIGN NEWS OF INTEREST
rBY CABLE TO THE D1sPArcH.l

LONDON, January II. = Copyright l.
The Duke of Cambridge, the Queens cousin,
and Commander in Chief of her army, and
ViscOunt wOlseley, Adjutant General, ought
10 be thankful that the dispute with Port
ugal is not to be settled by force OF arms, be-
cause if called upon at this moment to dis
patch troops to Lisbon they would become
the laughing stock OF Europe, thanks to the
influenza epidemic. 1t is the boast OF the
British War Office that they have on hand
8 fully equipped army corps of 25,-
600 men, ready to go anywhere
and do anything There is good reason to
believe that even in ordinary times this
normal corps is almost paper one At this
moment As per cent of the men are in the
hospital with Ia grippe, and the remainder
are being so overworked in consequence that
they can have little stomach for fighting.
At Woolwich, Aldershot, Hounslow, in fact
at all great military centers, temporary
buildings have been erected to supplement
the overcrowded hospitals, and If the cpl
demic lasts much longer Queen Victoria's
home army will be force of woebegone in
Talids, as unmartial as Quakers.
DECIDEDLY ABATING.
Happily, the epidemic shows decided
signs of abatement. In London reports
from the hospitals, infrmaries and dis
pensaries and private practitioners all tend
to show that the plague is on the wane; but
in regard TO its progress and virulence Off
cials of the Odd Fellows, Foresters and
other great friendly societies, numbering in
the aggregate over 1000, 600 members, state
that the sick list which for a fortnight past
has been 25 per centum above the average,
has begun to diminish; and the reports from |
postal and police departments are equally |
feasSurlng.
Another American died at the Victoria |
Hotel to-day. He was Melville A. Sheldon, |
a lawyer of Glens Falls, n. Y, who was in |
London to promote a dairy syndicate. He |
died Of pneumonia preceded by influenza,
and his is the third death at the same hotel I
within week from similar complications /
Another American is dangerously i'll of /
pneumonia at the Victoria, and Mrs. King
widow OF Andrew n. King, who died there
Wednesday, is not yet out of danger.
DUE TO WEATHER ALSO.
The damp and changeable weather of
London for the last few weeks is RESPONSE
bic for this mortality, and it is only because
the Victoria is the lavorite American hotel
that so much sickness and death among
Americans prevails there. All of th csc
deaths may be traced to influenza, as all the
patients had the symptoms of that disease
before the more serious complications set in.
The body of Herbert BertraM Smith, of
Philadelphia, who died a week ago to-day,
has been embalmed and placed in the cata-
comb at Kensal Green Cemetery, pending
the arrival of his brother, who is a passenger
on the Etruria due to-morrou
1t is a sad and demoralizing feature of the
influenza epidemic in Paris that ladies and
gentlemen very partial to alcohol escaped,
while th, leading temperate lives were the
worst sufferers. The physicians, noting this,
immeo lately advised the use of warm alco-
holic drinks, with the result that ], 500 per-
sons were arrested in the streets within
three days for drunkenness. or this num-
Der 1,200 declared that they were simply
following the treatment prescribed for in
fuenza.
ORIGIN OF POPULAR SONG.
In London, also. quiet tip has been cir
culated that whisky is a medicine for the
grip, but the increase in drunken arrests has |
not been made known. But then in London. |
policemen stop making arrests for drunken
ness when the cells are full, which in some ,
districts is the case every night. The prac-
tice usually adopted then is to put the {
inebriated one into some quiet doorway, ,
loosen his collar to prevent sufocation, and !
then relieve him of his watch, if he has one. ,
In case professional thieves might be about :
Whereupon is based the popular hall song of
to-day: eff you want to know the time I
ask policeman {
On the continent the disease is spreading
in the Balkan States, Italy and Greece. and 5
is evidently on the march to Constantinople. '
but elsewhere in Europe is abating, al
though not 50 quickly as in England. t
The royalties have been lnckier this
week, only the queen mother of Portugal
Two or three Austrian archdukes, and a
few petty German princes having fallen
but one of the last-named class 4
Prince Adolph of Thun and Taxis. AGED
10, died of influenza, after only three days'
illness. The Dowager Empress Augusta's
1eath was only remotely due to the grin. q