The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-11-21

szUNvIWG BLOWS THAT HATE WEAR
LY ORlsED WILLIAM MEYER.

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Malignant ptpsthsris Carries or n,s win
ana Elve or uis Chiidrsn, All Within
Tnrse Weehs-A Chiia that We. ner. n
Few nays Age n utin IN Coed Health.
William Meyer. q 50-year-old Amer.
lean living at sos Bond street, Elizabeth, has
lost his wife and flvo Of his children during the
sst three weeks from malignant diphtheria.
Meyer has worked for years for the Singer Man.
ufacturine Company. He earns good wages
and was able to provide q comfortable home
for his wife and nine children In a two-story
cottage near the factory. HIS oldest child, a
girl Of 10, works In q shirt factory.
Three Of the children, two boys aged 10 aud
8 years, and q girl Of 9, were taken sick on Oct.
90 and Mrs. Meyer, although sho WAS about to
become q mother again, cared for the nttls pa
TENTS herself. She thought tho children had
ordinary cases Of sore throat. Some Of Meyers
fellow workmen, however, who had seen tho
children, telephoned to DR.. Whitehead, who had
attended tho family before, that he was needed.
Ho got the message at his Office, SO Third street,
and drove to tho cottage. The three-year-old
boy was dead when he reached the house. He
had fallen dead Of heart failure. A hasty ex.
animation was sufficient to show that death
had been hastoned by malignant diphtheria.
The e-yoar.old girl and 1o-year-old boy wero
then in bed In an advanced stage OF the disease.
IL Dhy Jul
tho remedy was given too late. The girl died
that night. An undertaken was summoned, and
prepared both bodies for interment and ar
ranged for q private funeral. A day after tho
funeral, however, 1t was learned that some of
the girl'c scboolmates had como to the house and
had attended the burial at the cemetery, and
then had ridden back in the trolley cars. a pro-
ceeding which y was said last night should not
On Sunday the 3lst, tho physician who had
Of IL stricken with diphtheria., ,Antitoxin
saved the girls life, but 1t was administered too
days. His death was followed by that Of tho
l0-year-old boy. to whom antitoxin had been
There was a second double interment in the
cemetery, this time strictly private. The health
authorities had meantime put the cottage under
strict quarantine, which shut the mother and
her remaining children Off from communication
with the outside world SO far as visits were con-
dren of their own were afraid to call at the cot
tage lest they might carry the contagion into
broke down Meyers spirit, and no wandered
about like one bereft Of his senses. On Nov. 9
e third message was sent to the physician and
two more children sick. a girl Of il and the boy
baby, q little over 2 year old. He gave anti
init It to be given to the baby. She was almost
Frustrated by grief and exhaustion. and was
u'a!f IF the se}Ss sSS dies lie spP'r she mo.ned, cit will be
only ono morshto bury" Tho baby did die the
n saved o Z she s,' RSd eon iss nsS To %'s sIlo1 R' Il to ooe Se
treated with anti toxin. Aftor the baby had
been buried Mrs. Meyer gave birth to a boy
baby. The infant was perfectly healthy, but
the mother was suffering from diphtheria Of the
! larynx and bronchial tubes. DR.. Whitehead's
partner. DR.. Mack, who had attended her. be-
sought her to permit him to administer anti
broken-hearted anyhow. and didn't care what
became Other, The:physician pleaded with her,
but she was obdurate, and he tried other rem.
edies. They were of no avail. however, and on
Friday night she died. the sixth victim Of diph.
iberia. The husband wandered about in a
dazed sta.e, unable to talk connectedly. and
hardly able to recognize his friends. The
mother will be buried to-day beside her five chill
dren. The newborn baby was reported in per-
feet health last night, and the ls-year-old daugh-
dren had escaped the epidemic.
Thirty-fvosor forty other cases of diphtheria
have been reported In tho town during tho last
month, but the doctors hope to hold the dis
ease in check and prevent . repetition Of the
epidemic of two years ago, when 800 persons
were stricken with 1t.