Pages from the Past

1859 150 Years Ago Typhoid fever hits South Westmeath An outbreak of the potentially deadly typhoid fever was reported in Glasson, Coosan and Tynagh districts of Athlone in late August 1859. The Westmeath Independent said the news should impress the local authorities "with the absolute necessity of using every means within their power to oppose the dreadful epidemic with which we are threatened". The disease, referred to as typhus, had firm allies the paper said in "impure air", "insufficient sewerage", "want of water" and consequent want of cleanliness". The paper said it had more remote allies in "poverty, ignorance and vice"."These are the necessary conditions of inducement, retention and propagation. In removing them, we destroy the generative and nursing faculties which create and continue infection. It is idle to expect, indeed, that the occupants of back streets and filthy lanes can be drive at once, by a royal road, from the extremes of dirt and squalor to the requisite degree of healthful cleanliness of person and habitation, but a good deal of improvement may be effected nevertheless. "Have we no abattoirs to be rigorously inspected, no lack of wholesome water to be supplied, no pestilential cess-pools to be closed, no system of efficient drainage to be introduced, no whitewashing and general attention to sanitary measures to be enforced. "The Town Commissioners can do a great deal toward lessening the evil arising from preventible causes by exercising a rigid supervision of nuisances through their authorised inspector."The number of poor people attacked by fever, which number is steadily increasing, has drawn from the medical officer of Glasson a request for professional assistance." And the paper pointed out that the lack of an infirmary was a great draw back in the treatment of typhoid fever. It said fever patients "can rarely be induced to leave their cabins for the workhouse" "The county infirmary at Mullingar is, of course, about as much use to the sick at Athlone, as if it were situated in Nova Scotia". 1909 100 Years Ago The dog who only liked well dressed people The story of a dog who did not like people who were not well-dressed was told at Athlone Petty Sessions in August 1909. The owner of the dog, a dentist named Wagener, was summonsed by a local man John Hartnett who said he had been bitten by the dog. Hartnett told the court he had been passing by the dentist's when he saw the dog lying outside the building."When I got up to him the dog made a ran up to me and caught me by the leg and took a bit out of it. I had to go to the doctor and get the wound burned.The witness said he had not provoked the dog and said it had nipped at him before. Representing the defendant, Mr Robert Elder told the court the dog had never bitten anybody before. He admitted the dog had made a lunge at the witness but said the dog was peculiar in as much as he did not like people unless they were well dressed. The defendant was fined 10 shillings with half crown costs. One third of the penalty was ordered to be given to the witness. 1959 50 Years Ago Message in a bottle or practical joke? Silly season may also have been a concern for newspaper editors in August 50 years ago, perhaps an explanation for a curious incident hitting the headlines of the Westmeath Independent this week in 1959. The paper reported that a local man was out shooting on Tuesday morning and discovered a large well corked bottle on the callows in the Athlone area during his pursuit. Noticing something white inside, he opened it and extracted a piece of paper bearing the following: "September 6, 1945 - I am putting this note in at Drumshambo Co Leitrim. Would the finder please reply to the Westmeath Independent as there is a reward for the finder. Signed T.G. Loufthouse, 1101 Deer Park Avenue, New York. Thank you kindly." The bottle and note were later handed in to the Westmeath Independent offices. "It is not known whether the note is genuine or the work of some local practical joker," the writer concluded. First microwave telephone link for Galway to Athlone The country's first microwave telephone link will be in operation between Galway and Athlone in early 1960, the annals of the Westmeath Independent revealed. It stated that the radio link will supplement the existing land line system between the two areas, and will speed up trunk calls. "If the radio link proves to be of great assistance similar links may be added to other parts of the existing land line system. The equipment will include 7,400 Mc/s radio link equipment, including antenna towers at the Galway and Athlone terminals and at a repeater station in Capataggle near Ballinasloe." Frequency multiplex equipment at the terminals, transmission test equipment, and machines for the stand by power supply will also be included. "The microwave system will be able to handle 240 telephone circuits on each of the two both-way radio frequency channels. One channel will be used as a standby and work is ongoing on the Galway end of the project," the report concluded.