The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1914-02-23
4 WEDDING IN GEORGIA
Here's some news from Georgi

not know that he would be held in |
quarantine While he was at the
house, the young woman's case was
diagnosed as smallpox by the physic
ians and quarantine was established.
johnson and Miss Brown made
the best of it. They decided to have
the wedding ceremony performed at
once. Rev. A. @. Smith was sum-
moned to the porch and he performed
the wedding ceremony at safe dis
tance.'
This is an exact copy of the dis
patch that appeared in the papers,
excepting that the names of places
and people have been changed for
obvious reasons. It gives some im-1
portant facts; it -omits some and
leaves some others to be inferred. 1t
does not tell us whether Mr.. Johnson
had been vaccinated, but it makes it
certain that the bride and the min
lister had not been. If the groom had
been, that fact might detract a bit
from his seeming heroism thru his
immunity to the disease.
If the Reverend Mr.. Smith had not
this protection, he would not have
been compelled to keep at a safe
distance out on the porch. while
performing his clerical duty. 1t
would not have been necessary for
him to raise his voice so that it could
be heard across the porch and thru
the open windows of Miss Browns
sick room One is tempted to wonder
| if he might not have employed the
telephone and rendered his safety
still more sure. Still greater is the
wonder why he hadn't been vaccinat-
ed long before, so that he might go
about the community in safety to
| himself and others to administer to
! the spiritual and other pressing
needs of his flock
The moral is that if he had been
immune to this disease, his useful
ness among the people committed to
his care might be largely enhanced
and this hole in his armor in the bat
ties for Righteousness might be
stopped.
The wider application is that the
use of this precaution, established
and proven by decades of experience,
and approved by the medical profess
Esion all over the world, gives immu-
nifty. feeling and condition of safe
ty in the presence of infection. 1t
the face of these tests of time-the
immunity afforded by vaccination
against smallpox, for the medical
men and the large majority of intel
legent men accept the results of these
tests
Smallpox is a courageous disease.
1t is communicated from the infected
to the unaffected and unvaccinated
were wiped out, if there were nc
cases within given territory, there
could be no spreading of the disease
within that territory, excepting by
/
trolled by legitimate methods. II
may be limited, even wiped out, with.
in any prescribed territoI. by proper
, precautions, that is, by vaccination
This assertion is based upon actua
. experience many times and often re
peated and emphasized.
Therefore, it becomes a duty de
volving upon every responsible indi
vidual to see that he and those of hi:
household and dependents are vac
cinated. 1t is duty he owes himself
and them, as we'll as to his neighbor!
and the entire community in which
he lives, for no man can live unto
himself alone
But it is a difficulty that reformer.
real reformers-encount tina
the average man usually appreciate
his duty to the community only o.
mainly when his duty is impressed
, thru his pocketbook. If he can b,
, made to see that he is likely to los,
money thru neglect of such publi
duty, he promptly becomes most pat
, riotic. But he has to be shown first
sometimes by argument, more ofte1
by actual and bitter experiences. Tn
law has been invoked under certain
conditions and in some localities t.
compel vaccination. More often pub
lie sentiment must be the motiv
D power
Epidemics have come to differen
: Florida communities. The first dag
l. nosed and announced case has bee
: the signal for crowding the Offices O
the local doctors by anxious and fear
some individuals. Others trust t
- the chance that the disease won
reach them, and still others deny tn
| efficacy of vaccination, and the
h.