Among the Victims
The onset of illness for those battling the flu of 1918 was quite
sudden. In a matter of mere hours, a person could go from strapping good health
to being so enfeebled they could not walk. Victims complained of general
weakness and severe aches in their muscles, backs, joints, and heads. Often
enduring fevers that could reach 105 degrees, the sick fell prey to wild bouts
of delirium. Innocent objects--pieces of furniture, wallpaper, lamps--would
adopt wicked manifestations in the minds of those consumed by fever. When the
fevers finally broke, many victims fortunate enough to have survived now
endured crushing post-influenzal depression.
This flu was a great leveler of men; it recognized neither social order
nor economic status. It struck with impunity among the rich and famous, as well
as the lowly and the meek. Among its more well-known victims: Silent screen
star Harold Lockwood, swimmer Harry Elionsky, "Admiral Dot," one of PT Barnum's
first midgets, Irmy Cody Garlow, the daughter of Buffalo Bill Cody, General
John Pershing*, Franklin Roosevelt*, actress Mary Pickford*, and President
Woodrow Wilson*.
*survived the flu
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