Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 January 1902 — Smallpox Outbreak Feard. [ARTICLE]

Smallpox Outbreak Feard.

Scores of persons who attended the funeral of John Rydh, a lad who died at the Lincoln (Ill.) asylum fqr feebleminded children, are being vaccinated, owing to the general belief that death was caused by smallpox. The report that in the institution there are 100 cases was not known at Bloomington until after the casket had been opened and the body viewed. The death certificate was marked “Chicken pox,” and the undertaker had inscribed “Not to be opened” on the box. The family disregarded this instruction, innocently, being unaware of the plague in the Lincoln asylum. But one case of smallpox exists in this city, but there is much fear over an outbreak.