"Fifteen persons in Providence died of pneumonia or grip during the second half of last week, making 35 lives claimed here by the epidemic in the first eight days of January.
"This is the largest number of deaths from these diseases which the city has ever had in a similar period. Physicians report that there is no indication of a let-up in the epidemic as yet, and that a continuance of the unusually high death rate may be expected.
"There were nine deaths from pneumonia last Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and six fatalities from grip. The deaths for the first eight days of the month are as follows: Pneumonia 24, grip 10, acute bronchitis 1."
At the Rhode Island State Institutions there are nearly 300 cases of the disease--100 at the State Prison alone--but at the State Reform School for girls there is not one case, as this school gives better hygienic care to the inmates. But the great reason is the girls are not dissipated and nature does not have to produce the germs in their systems.
Reformers are often bombarded with statistics by brewery owners, distillers and those whose ideas are regulated by personal benefits. The favorite weapon is the story of the man who lived to be old and always drank or smoked. Here is a reprint of such a story:
New Jerseyman Chews Tobacco as Preventive of Disease.
Newton, N. J., Dec. 22.--Charles Ashford Shafer, Sushex County's oldest resident, celebrated his one hundred and second birthday at the home of his son, George Shafer, to-day. Mr. Shafer is still active, hale and hearty, and walks several miles a day. He was born a few miles from here and has spent all his life in this section. For many years he conducted a distillery. The centenarian declares that chewing tobacco is a means of preventing disease, and he has been chewing it since a boy. Mr. Shafer reads without the aid of glasses.
West Virginian Never Tasted Liquor or Tobacco in His Life.
Wheeling, W. Va., Nov. 29.--Henderson Cremeans, known to be the oldest man in West Virginia and probably the oldest in the United States, died to-day at the home of his grandson, Clark Cremeans, near Point Pleasant, Mason County, aged 115 years. He never tasted liquor or tobacco in his life.
And when we study statistics of the insurance business we may rest assured that they are correct, for an insurance company gets a premium on every policy and regulates its action upon the correct statistics. Here is another reprint: