The Cordova daily times. [volume] (Cordova, Alaska) 1914-1947, 1919-01-31
IN AN OBSERVATION PLANE.

When your visiting frineds talk
about their experiences with the "fiu"
you feel like the soldiers who tried
10 get to France and didn't.
These folk who battled with and
defaeted the "fu" are as upstartish
as the boys who went "over there"
and sQuelched the Hun.
The "fu" veterans converse with
their fellow victims as arrogantly as
our heroes talk with one another
abou, the wounds they acquired at
Chateau Thierrv. st Mihel and in
the maLcs OF the Argonne.
| suppose that some day soon the
victims viii form a society which will
bla2On itself impudently as the Vet
erans OF the Influenza Epidemic"
Their insignia will be an atomizcr
Ouartcrcd with a Spanish onion ramp
ant. They vii have passwords and
grips but of course. will spell grip
"g.r.i.pp-e."
How humble one feels nowadays
when the flu spellbnders crate
about their symptoms and tell in
whispers how they were just begin
ming TO turn black However none of
them will admit that they were dead
from the neck up and have not re
covered
1t was an excellent idea to quaran-
tine those who had the "fu.' but
those who had it and recovered
should either be quaraatined or muz-
lied. Ii had my way | would apply
roth cures. Not that have anything
against one who has had the "fu."
II is simply that these FLU" graduates
seem 20 hay" something against all
the rest OF us
Perhaps We SHOULD not speak in
such blitheSome tones of the "hu."
Perhaps we should be as serious about
ii as are some of our neighborS who
hay" had it.
Very we'll. then. let us talk of the
'flu' grlvely.
Her" is a plain. unvarnished tale,
though. here and there it may be sat
urated with Dobell's mixture.
presume you know that San Fran
cisco conquered the epidemic in rec
ord time. Health officers will please
be quiet, so that can make myself
heard.
! still maintain that San Francisco
broke the record. | am not condemn
ing anybody. but ! insist on being
heard to the end. Then If anyone has
n word to say in reply | am willing
that he should hire hall,
Or Hassler is chief of the state
health bureau in San Francisco. lie
is a persistent person who keeps nag
ging al folk until the; do as he tells
them. II they are belligerent he puts
them in Jail
Or, Hassler was a champion - the
gauze mask and the strict quarai Inc
bat, above all he favored the masks
He demanded that the city supervi-
sors pass a law to make the wearing
OF gauze masks compulsory. The sci
oLs acquiesced promptly, but there is
charter requirement which says
that an ordinance cannot 60 into eff.
feet until five days after its passage.
rs We all know, the bacillus OF infiu.
enza can massacre scores and hun
dreds in five days If given his way
The authorities decided that for the
benefit OF society they would conceal
the real facts about the charter as
long as possible and instruct the pc
lice to enforce the wearing of masks
Il was bluff and the truth became
widely known in a few hours. But thu
police used threats and persuasions
They stopped maskless folk - mel
and women-on the street and sternl!
told them to don masks or 60 to jail
On the second day about fifty pc
cent were wearing masks. On tn