Wednesday, Oct. 16, 1918

Former state assemblyman and onetime Troy mayoral candidate William M. Keenan is among the latest victims of the Spanish flu epidemic, The Record reports. The 59 year old lawyer and Public School Athletic League president dies at his 46 Ferry Street home after taking ill over the weekend. He took part in voter enrollment activities in the First Ward last Friday. A standout student-athlete, Keenan was an 1877 graduate of Troy High School. He served in the state assembly from 1893 through 1894. He was the Democratic nominee for mayor in 1907, losing to Republican incumbent Elias P. Mann. He later served as deputy district attorney for Rensselaer County. “Among the recent deaths of prominent and influential citizens none came with more unexpectedness,” our reporter writes, “and none was heard of with greater regret.” As the flu continues to ravage New York State, the state public health council has made it a misdemeanor for anyone to cough or sneeze in public without covering one’s face, city health officer Dr. Melville D. Dickinson announces today. “Dr. Dickinson stated these regulations would be strictly enforced and anyone who violates them will be arrested and prosecuted.” To avoid contagion, many Trojans are wearing surgicalstyle masks in public, while nurses are covering their mouths with gauze bandages. Women can wear chiffon veils instead, Dickinson suggests, as long as they are worn correctly.

“If a woman sneezes through a veil and then shifts the part of the veil away from her nostrils no good can be accomplished,” the doctor observes.