Baltimore Evening Sun (3 September 1912): 6.

Dan may have missed the sights that Jake seen, but he never missed no jobs.--Adv.

From the super-Mahon’s memorable message to the jobhounds:

By actual chemical test our water is better, etc., etc.

From the scoundrelly Evening Sunpaper of yesterday:

Most of the departments of the City Hall and the annexes have made arrangements for supplies of spring water or have the city water filtered through patented filters before they drink it. The water in Mayor Preston’s ice cooler is filtered.

One more proof that prudence is not incompatible with patriotism.

Deaths from typhoid fever in Baltimore, according to Health Commissioner James Bosley:

Deaths from typhoid fever in Munich, a city of almost exactly Baltimore’s size, according to the Statistischer Monatsbericht der Stadt Muenchen:

* Reports not yet received.

The Hon. the super-Mahon to the jobhounds:

the alleged prevalence of typhoid fever * * * * the alleged bad water * * * *

According to Dr. Bosley, “The city water is in better condition than it has ever been before.” And yet, during July and August, we had 43 deaths from typhoid, as against 20 cases last year, when, as everyone knows, the city water was so filthy that all persons who could afford to do so drank spring water. In 1910, when there was a water famine, the deaths for the two months came to 37.

What does all this seem to indicate? Does it show that the city water is harmless, or does it show, on the contrary, that typhoid increases in direct proportion as the people drink that water?

According to Water Engineer Ezra B. Whitman, calcium-hypochlorite was first added to the water in June of last year, and the treatment “resulted in a very large decrease in the number of typhoid cases from June until the end of the year.” Dr. Bosley’s comparative table of cases for July and August thus shows that decrease:

A gratifying decrease, to be sure. But of what actual value has it been? Not much. In 1910, with 583 cases of typhoid in July and August, the death rate was 6.3 per cent. During July and August of the present year, with 301 cases, it was 14 per cent! How do Dr. Bosley and Mr. Whitman account for this? Are they willing to admit that hypochlorite has more than doubled the death rate?

The truth is that the value of hypochlorite is yet to be demonstrated. The reports of cases show nothing, or next to nothing. At one time physicians run to the Health Department with too hasty reports of typhoid; at another time they hang back until the undertaker is in sight. There are fashions in medicine, not to say contagious delusions. Two years ago, so my spies tell me, many cases of a mild and obscure fever then prevalent in Baltimore were diagnosed as typhoid, and so the returns of cases mounted up. Today that mistake is not made so often.

But when typhoid proceeds to a fatal termination an error in diagnosis is much less likely. The best diagnostician may be in some doubt in the early stages; but he is not apt to go wrong in the presence of hemorrhage, perforations and peritonitis. Therefore it must be plain that the reports of deaths are far more dependable than the repoirts of cases. And turning to reports of deaths one finds that, after a decline of nearly 30 per cent., they have since increased more than 65 per cent. Is this a testimonial to hypochlorite? I think not. If it proves anything at all, it proves that hypochlorite has been without influence one way or the other.

What to do? The remedy is simple. Have yourself vaccinated. Have your children vaccinated. It costs little and it affords a million times as much protection as all the hypochlorite in the world. Once scraped and protected, you will be able to read the reports of the Health Department without getting a chill. The other fellow, of course, will still have typhoid. But let him have it and enjoy it.

Reports from Young Bellis’ roadhouse on the Annapolis road are that Kid Price is training hard for his coming bout with Young Anderson. When the Kid went into camp he was soft and short-winded, but since then he has put on much muscle and gained in endurance and resiliency. Saturday afternoon he thrust out his right arm and said to Young Bellis, who weighs 340 pounds: “Hang on it, my boy, and let me know when you fall off.” Such episodes give confidence to all Rum Demonists, and that confidence shows itself in the betting, which has fallen from 2 to 1 on Young Anderson to 7 to 6. Many sports think it will reach even money by the end of the week.

The Hon. Jacobus Hook on the lessons of his invasion of Bavaria:

It would be fine to have music in our City Hall every day. I will take it up with the Mayor.

Can it be that the good Colonel is deaf to the sweet music already sounding there? Turner tooting the bovophone. McCay McCoy rattling the spines of traitors. Hymns by the old-fashioned school marms. The Hon. Daniel Joseph Loden, tenor profundo, in “Oh, You Beautiful Doll!” The harmonic scratching of Hot Towel pencils. The sough and sigh of the spouting tallow.

The Hon. Charles J. Ogle in praise of his pet panacea:

The Single Tax idea now has its advocates in all parts of the world.

Is this offered as an argument for its soundness? If so, let us all admit at once that Friday is an unlucky day, that an aching bunion spells rain, that the madstone cures hydrophobia.

Burns is putting in a searchlight to help the spyglass! Courage, Camille!

Beware of affable street-car conductors! Burns carries all sorts of uniforms in stock.

The bettings odds at Westport, as reported by the Citv Hall ticker:

2 to 1 that the Baltimore County Commissioners bluff them Lord’s Day Alliancers off.

Say what you will against them Lord’s Day Alliancers, anyhow they are always on the job.