October 4, 1918 - More family sick

When Mary returned home from work today, not only was Agnes still sick, but also her sister Marguerite and her father were now sick in bed.

The local headlines are finally beginning to reflect the magnitude of the health crisis.  In today's Evening Public Ledger: "Saloons Shut at 7 PM Tonight by Grip Order, Courts to Suspend for the Next Two Weeks, 788 New Victims of Disease in City in Last Twenty-Four Hours, Thousands of Cases, Third Regiment Armory May Be Hospital -- Situation Grows More Serious".  Also: Lack of Coffins Halts Grip Victims' Burials; Undertakers, Swamped With Funeral Orders, May Have to Make Caskets of Rough Boards".  And on the front page of The Philadelphia Inquirer: Theatres, Saloons in Penna. Closed to Halt Influenza, Schools and Churches Shut by Philadelphia Health Board, 75,000 Cases of Grippe in City, 139 Deaths and 636 New Cases".  The Philadelphia Inquirer obituary page now has seven columns of deaths, many in their teens and twenties.  One year prior, October 4, 1917, there were only two columns of deaths on the obituary page, almost all being "wife of" or "husband of" or "widow of", only a few being under 40 years of age.

Today Mary takes a walk down Broad Street with her sister, Kathleen, and finds that "All the theatres and places of amusement were closed until further notice."