Monday, August 28, 1916

Benjamin Streichman, the two year old son of Jacob Streichman of 34 Division Street, is Troy’s first fatality of the statewide polio epidemic, The Record reports.

“Notwithstanding the greatest precaution by the board of health, the city physicians and inspectors from the health department, under the vigilant direction of Health Officer Dr. Calvin E. Nichols, it transpires that a well developed case of infantile paralysis was discovered,” our reporter writes.

Nearly 2,000 people have died statewide, most of them in the New York City area, during this summer’s epidemic . As families have tried to send their children away from the hot zone downstate, cities like Troy have taken steps to screen strangers in order to keep polio out. The Collar City has delayed the start of the new school year and postponed celebrating the centennial of its charter out of fear of infantile paralysis, as polio is better known in 1916.

Until this weekend, Troy’s efforts seemed to be working. Benjamin Streichman, who dies this afternoon after being hospitalized yesterday, is the city’s first confirmed case of polio. A teenager, Beatrice Boylan, was believed to have contracted polio last month, is “greatly improved” as of today, and it remains unclear whether she actually had the disease.

There is a second confirmed polio case in Troy, but in this case the disease was not contracted here. Eleven year old Nina Hulett of Arlington VT was brought to Samaritan Hospital for an appendectomy, but doctors here determined that she was suffering from polio instead of appendicitis. She is currently being treated in Samaritan’s contagious ward.

“The health officer states that, notwithstanding the appearance of the disease in these cases, there is really no cause for alarm,” our writer reports.

TENNIS, ANYONE?

“The columns of all our newspapers have been loud in their praise of what has been achieved in baseball and golf due in large part to the widespread popularity of our national pastime and because of the rich clientele of the latter,” one reader writes in today’s Pulse of the People section.

“But of almost equal importance, in my opinion, is tennis, so far at least as physical development is concerned.”

The writer, signing himself “A PLAYER,” wants Troy to build more tennis courts. “Time was,” he writes, “when only a few players might be witnessed on the courts of Prospect Park of this city. Now in contrast even the juveniles are flocking there with racquet and ball.

“I firmly believe that many of the youth of Troy would be sincerely grateful for the increased opportunity to indulge in their favorite game.”