The Worst of It

My Grandfather, Price Bayless, graduated high school in the summer of 1918.  He was registered with the draft though he was never called to serve in World War I (as far as I can tell.)

1918 was also the year that the Spanish Flu scourged the world taking some 50 million lives and some 500,000 in the US.  In Arkansas, some 7,000 were estimated to have died.

I was curious about how much attention it gathered and looked at some of the local papers in his hometown and nearby.  In one I came across a ditty.  They were well aware of the Spanish Flu, just dismissive.

From The Hot Springs New Era, October 29th, 1918 by Miss Alta Smith, page 7.

The Worst of It

by Alta Smith

If you have seven million aches and twice as many pains,

If every limb seems bound with heavy, dragging chains. 

If both your eyeballs are red-hot and sizzling in your head. 

And it hurts you to walk about and hurts to go to bed. 

And if your tongue is furred and feels as big as a boxing glove. 

And if you are warned to keep away from little folks you love. 

And half the time you shake with chills and half the time you stew. 

Cheer up. the worst is yet to come, you've got the Spanish Flu.