Smallpox Panic Grips Snohomish
Snohomish health officer vaccinates 20 saloon men, jails refusers as smallpox kills a bridge builder.
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.
The smallpox situation has hardly changed today. Nels B. Nelson, the Great Northern bridge builder, died at the pest house last night. Health Officer Limerick, assisted by officers Moran and Stevens, raided the Great Northern saloon last night and vaccinated all twenty men, including late arrivals from the railway camps. These operations will be repeated until the danger is past. Extra policemen have been added to the force to guard the entrances from all county roads leading into the city, with instructions from the health officer to discover all cases entering from railroad camps and escort them to his office for vaccination. All who refuse to comply are promptly locked up in the city jail. When Health Officer Limerick, with the officers, entered the Great Northern saloon last night, one man created a panic by jumping through a window.
“All who refuse to comply are promptly locked up in the city jail.”
The aggressive public health measures in 1892 Snohomish—including forced vaccinations and police-enforced quarantines—prefigure modern debates over civil liberties versus collective health during pandemics.
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