With the invention of the telegraph, and the resulting wire service for news, coverage of far-flung events still had its faults. These telegraph reports would still be missing information, and any updates on the same story in the same paper were not combined in a single story. To make sure you read everything about a story, you would have to read the entire telegraph section.

Even with a faithful wire service, weekly publications sometimes wouldn't print the telegraph reports until the next week, keeping readers in suspense, particularly with news of sickness out East.

This blog takes a look at the coverage of the 1879 yellow fever outbreak in the Southern United States, from the vantage of newspapers in the Washington Territory.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

August

Telegraphs during August brought news that the fever was worsening and spreading.
The Howard Association assigned 25 more nurses to Memphis on August 7, and announced the daily expenses were about $500.
A telegraph timed at 6 p.m. that the last 24 hours had 29 reported cases and that "this is a marked increase in the number of new cases, and plainly indicates that the fever is rapidly spreading."[7]

On August 14, a total of 40 new cases were reported to the board of health, with 10 deaths mentioned by the city's undertakers.

On August 21, the Howard Association announced that every cent would go toward helping the South with the fever. The group's daily cost was estimated to be $1,000; with almost $20,000 used from their treasury. With funds dwindling, the group asked the North to contribute help and money to the cause, as had happened the year before. Other groups, such as the Knights of Honor, were also aiding the South at the time.

It was reported that ministers in the area had fled from their followers as the fever spread.

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