100 years ago in The Saratogian
Friday, Nov. 15, 1918. The world war may be over, but the fight against the Spanish flu continues in Saratoga County.
While emergency hospitals are closing elsewhere and restrictions on public gatherings have been lifted, The Saratogian reports today “there is no abatement of the influenza epidemic” in Hadley-Luzerne, where “the doctors are busy night and day.”
The most recent flu fatality in that part of the county was 20 year old Bert Allen, who died last Monday at his brother’s Stoney Creek Road home. Allen was buried in Wolf Creek Cemetery yesterday.
“On account of the epidemic the house-to-house canvass which was to have been conducted for the United War Work campaign this week has been postponed until next week,” the local correspondent reports.
Allen Acquitted of Arson Charge
A jury finds Putnam Garage owner Carroll P. Allen not guilty of setting fire to his business last September 30, The Saratogian reports.
The case against Allen depended on the testimony of city patrolman Eugene Higgins, who saw the defendant leaving the building just before the fire was detected. Earlier this week, Higgins testified that Allen had offered him a bribe in return for covering up the presence of Allen’s mistress in the garage. However unethical that offer was, it made the defense story that Allen had accidentally set a mattress on fire more convincing to jurors.
The case went to the jury this morning and is decided in Allen’s favor “several hours” later. Whether the presence of a woman in the garage was ever confirmed remains unclear. Casualties of War Four days after the end of the world war, reports of local soldiers’ deaths weeks ago continue to arrive in Saratoga County.
The government confirms today that Private Frank Karas, of Schuylerville, a soldier in Company L, 105th U.S. Infantry, died of wounds received at an unspecified date.
Later today, Mrs. Dominick Dominick of 145 Elm Street, Saratoga Springs, receives confirmation that her son, Private Louis Dominick of Company L, was killed in action on September 29. The 105th saw its bloodiest fighting that day as the 27th Division, to which it belongs, stormed the German Hindenburg Line. To date, seven Company L soldiers have been reported killed. What’s Happening Today’s program at the Broadway Theatre includes newsreel footage of the premature victory celebrations on November 7, as well as the feature film, “The Caillaux Case” and three acts of live vaudeville.
At the Palace, Constance Talmadge stars in “The Shuttle,” based on a best-selling novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, while the Lyric offers Earle Williams in “A Diplomatic Mission” and a military newsreel.