The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-08-11
HEALTH OF MELTING pot
INFORMATION BUREAU
BY Frederic j. Haskin. Director.
Washington. ID. O.

wave that has hit the city in forty
years. For five days the sun appeared
to be occupying a new position some
where near the back of mans neck,
| and the street thermometers register
ed los and 107 degrees Fahrenheit
with painful regularity. People sue
cumbed in appalling numbers-an old
| lady here, an infant there, and fac
| tory workers by the dozens in various
places-until by tn end of the fourth
| day SIS deaths from the heat were
| recorded Several of these were sui
cides. Maddened by their futile at
| tempts to get cool, few sought a
more comfortable end in the river,
while others. in delirium leaped from
| their windows. At least two murders,
according to the police department,
were attributable to the heat
| For the most part New Workers ac-
| cepted the heat calamity with the
! same sophisticated urbanity that they
accept any and every evil. Where HE
| is plentiful it is not valued very high
! " The first day a slight interest was
| exhibited in persons who Topped over
! in the streets. A crowd usually gath
| cred, and occasionally one heard a
| sympathetic remark. if it happened TO
| be a fairly pretty girl or a feeole oiu
lady but by the end of the second day
| a man could lie face forward on the
pavement for five minutes without
| attracting the attention or assistance
of the hurried pedestrian. Then,
| someone would say: There's another
poor nut-send for a copl" Eventual
| w. an oVerWorked ambulance would
| arrive and cart the victim away.
Unfortunately, at the beginning of
| the hot spell, the city's supply OF cleo
| trio fans ran short, and an emergency
| call to the factories revealed the fact
that for some mysterious reason
! probab bly, the War-there were none.
Hence, old-fashioned fans of the palm
| leaf, Japanese and pleated feminine
varieties were hauled out of attlcs,
pawn shops and department stores. In
the wholesale districts, the New Y ofk
business man carried his coat on his
arm while with the other hand he
f1ourished a paper fan; in the trains
the beachgoers tapped their violently
perspiring faces with giant palm leafs,
while in the hotels elevator boys were
to be found tanning themselves with
highly decorated bits of pasteboard,
resembling ladies' favors distributed
at dance halls. Instantly, fans be-
came the fashion on Fifth avenue,
where New York's wealthy appeared
with fans of long brilliant feathers
that did not have much effect upon
| the heat but looked wonderfully at
| ira ctive.-
Curiously enough the East side reg
| istered fewer deaths than any OF the
| other crowded sections. This is prob
ably because most of the population
slept in the street, while those who
had enough energy and enough money
went to Coney Island and slept on the
sands. Here whole families were found
spread out on the beach-tired fathers
with gaunt haggard cheeks; wan
| mothers with nursing babies, and
hordes of small progeny who dug
themselves beds in the sand. Most of
these night visitors did not attempt to
cool off in the ocean They had no
| bathing suits, and the stern rule of
Coney Island prohibits a plunge with
out clothing.
Perhaps the greatest strain of the
hot spell was felt by the city's health
department. 1t is supposed to look
after the health of New Workers.
problem that is so complicated that it
is almost impossible. Everybody has
heard those ancient statistics CONCERN
ing the foreign population of New
York, in which the city's German pop
ulation is compared to that of the
German city of Bremen, the Italian
population to that of Trieste and
Vienna combined, the Russian populs-
| ton to that of the Russian city of
| Odessa and the Hebrew population to
| that of the whole world, but it takes
a New York health inspector really to
grasp the Significance of this bromide.
You can't teach people to be healthy
and clean who do not speak your lam
| but, of course, that is what the New
York health department has to be.
When the heat wave struck the city.
the department imm ediately got out
cireulars\in four different languages.
telling people not to eat heating food,
such as spices and fats. A large part
of New York cannot afford to eat
much fat--n eat, for instance. ~ eggs
and butter-but it does consume large
quantities of spices in the form of pep
pers. An Italian or Jewish family has
/ 10 be mighty poor before it leaves its
hot stuff out of the daily menu, yet
in hot weather it is not the best form
| of nourishment 1t is doubtful if the
people paid much attention to the cir
| culars. however. for according to one
| health expert, you can eXterminate
a people quicker than you can exter-
inmate it's eating habits.
| Another portion of advice distribut-
| ed in circular form by the health de-
| partment counseled the people to stay
| at home and not go to the beaches
to sleep while the heat wave lasred,
At home, the department said, it is
| possible to keep cool by taking off
| your clothes and dipping in cold water,
| whereas at the beaches it is often diff
| ficult to find a single sleeping place
| in the crowd on the sands and unless
4 you wear a bathing suit you are handi-
| capped by clothes. A young Yiddish
! woman on the East side who read one
of these circulars tore it up and laugh
| ed scornfully. IVA, and when we do
stay at home they won't give us any
peace she said in very much worse
! English than it is possible to write it.
| AT three o'clock in the morning we
must all get up and go ir the house
while they wash the streets"
Thus any attempt to educate the
4 foreign population of New York can
not be said to achieve overwhelin ng
| success. Yet recently the health de-
partment has appeared to discover an
| encouraging method-namely, the
movies. Almost everybody in New
| York, however poor, manages to
| scrape enough money together to at
| tend the movies. When the idea of
reaching the people thru this means
] first occurred to DR.. Charles F. Rcld.
uan, director of the bureau of public