Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1901-12-07
LOOKER-ON in IOWA.
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.;
For neutrality-suspicious.

OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
For theTimes- Republican.
Jewell. Dec. 6.-Smallpox in an Iowa
town is becoming SO prevalent that
travelling men and strangers no longer
Jump the town." All that the travel
ing public asks is, to have an assur-
ance that no cases have been in the
hotel or in the railroad depot. Farmers
trading in such towns, when once the
facts are given, /. e., how many cases
and where located, continue to come
to town and do their trading as usual.
This in towns where the publicity plan
is In vogue. Towns that keep 1t out
of the papers" or whose board of health
officers try to conceal real conditions
punish themselves by allowing rumors
instead of facts to get abroad, and the
consequence Is trade goes to the adj
Joining towns, where the business men
never fail to report all OF the rumors
concerning smallpox in Blankviile.
And the towns In Iowa that are try
ing the quarantine at home" plan,
are making great mistake. The other
day the writer was In a town of say
5000 inha bitants To the credit OF
good sense, they have adopted the pub
licity plan, but to their financial dis
advantage. they have decided upon
Quarantine at home" On the business
street, on a two story house front door
the yellow placard announced small
pox. No one is to enter these prem
ises, etc And while the LOCKER on
oS1 Cf ha
the occupants of the house raised
window in the second story. and man
and woman brought chairs and sat
down by the open window. enjoying
the spring like weather of the Novem-
Der afternoon. At least SO persons
passed on the street below this while
the writer was watching the "quaran-
tine" And all of the passers by were
within 10 feet Of the open window.
where the "quarantined" man and
woman were sitting. Three dogs also
passed by. one running around to call
on "quarantined" cat on the back
door step. Schools, churches and
shows" are well patronized In this
town. and on Saturday afternoons
crowds brush up against one another
in the stores and on the streets. In this
town where SO cases are now reported,
there Is at least one case Of continent
smallpox, and the Looker-on Is told
that when supplies are taken to the
house, frequently the inmates como
out and get the groceries before the
delivery man gets into his wagon. That
the milk man pours milk into a dish
on the back porch, said dish going in
and out of the house as occasion re-
quires. What kick there would be If
the Looker-on should give the name
of this town, where such q rfgfd(?)
quarantine exists. Merchants there
now are afraid they will not get rid Of
smallpox before 1t hurts holiday
trade" Bless their quarantined souls
and bodies. they'll have smallpox in
that town from now till next Fourth
OF July and then some!
On the other hand. towns that have
gone to the expense OF hospital and
forced all smallpox patients to go there
for treatment, either at their own ex
pense or of the town, have stamped
out the disease protein. and present
clean bill OF health. OF course other
cases break out. but the spreading of
the disease 10 checked by quarantine
that means something. Dogs, cats,
grocery clerks and milk men, do not
visit such hospitals. And II the loss
of trade to the town is figured In, the
hospital treatment Is much less Of a
bill of expense to the town that quar-
antine at home This saying nothing
of the probability Of loss OF life in the
quarantined home, and lack Of trained
smallpox nurses But the average
American In the country town has a
horror of the pest house. and some OF
them will fight even shoot, before they
will go there.
And the number Of unvaccinated per-
sons in all of our Iowa towns is legion.
One can hear any day some man boast
ing he never was vaccinated, and he'd
as soon have the smallpox as be vac
cinated. They can keep his children
out OF school of they want to, but he
will not have impure vaccine matter
put into his children's arm, and have
them die of tetanus as they did in
Jersey City. 1t is useless to tell this
man that mistake has been made by
the general public, for according to
a press dispatch from Camden, New
Jersey. the special committee of ex-
perts, appointed by the Camden board
of health to make thorough investi-
cation of the cases Of tetanus has re-
ported to that body that not one case
OF lockjaw has resulted from Infection
of vaccine virus. All have been due,
1t finds, to the atmosphere and telluric
conditions which have prevailed dur
ing the last six months. There has
been long period Of dry weather with
the high winds. SO that tetanus germs,
says the committee. which have their
normal habitation in the earth, dust
and dirt Of stables had been constantly
distributed in the atmosphere.
He'll take his chances on smallpox.
So will the rest Of us as long as he
lives in our town.
a1 Hye.7~>.<
A drop Of ink makes millions think
and three gallons of blood are filtered