The Midnight Escape from the Smallpox Ward
A star baseball player stages a daring rescue of his wife from a quarantine hospital to catch a train for a new job.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
When Hogan, Walla Walla’s star center fielder, left for Portland last night, he was accompanied by Mrs. Hogan, notwithstanding the fact that she was suffering from smallpox in the pest house and was not to be discharged until some time next week. A borrowed team, a gallant rescue in the dark, and a hasty departure on a late train form the incidents of the escape. Hogan had informed his wife a few days prior that the Inland League had folded and he was seeking work elsewhere. Not wanting to be left behind, they orchestrated an exit from the pest house window while the matron remained unaware. Hogan secured a team from a local livery, drove his wife to the depot, and returned to town briefly before the pair boarded a sleeper on the O. R. N. train. The escape was discovered the following morning by buggy tracks and footprints leading away from the hospital.
“A borrowed team, a gallant rescue of his wife in the dark and a hasty departure on a late train form a few incidents that might be woven into a clever story.”
This story captures the extreme measures taken during the public health crises of the early 20th century, when 'pest houses' were often sites of social stigma and rigid confinement. It highlights the desperation of a young couple facing both a medical threat and the economic instability of the era’s semi-professional sports leagues.
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