By December 9, 1918, there
was little support left for the Hamilton Board of Health’s bans. Public
gatherings were banned, store hours shortened, schools closed, and theater
doors locked, all in the fight against the spread of influenza. There was also
a ban on meetings.
The number of new cases of
influenza reported per day was dropping as were the death rates. Public
sentiment had decidedly turned against the board of health’s ban.
The Hamilton Herald
generally fanned the flames of that opposition. When an incident involving an
officious board of health, the Herald reported it in great detail, and in the
same article got a little sarcastic in tone:
‘
“Here is a true story
illustrating the manner in which the health’s board’s ban is being enforced.
“The Rev. E.H. Bowden
Taylor, curate of Christ’s church cathedral, has been conducting at his
apartment, in a lodging house on Bold street, weekly classes for the benefit of
Sunday School teachers. Of late, the subject of study is church history.
“On Friday evening, the
class met as usual. There were only three present besides Mr. Taylor. Somebody
in the house had evidently been giving hostile consideration to the classes,
regarding them as held in defiance of the board of health’s order forbidding
meetings of any sort; and this person called up the board of health by ‘phone
and gave notification of the meeting then in progress in Rev. Mr. Taylor’s
apartment.
“The class had almost
completed its session when the door opened and an inquisitive face appeared on
the threshold.
“ ‘What sort of meeting is
this?’ enquired the owner of the face. ‘Is it a social gathering of some sort?’
“ ‘Well, something of that
sort,’ replied Mr. Taylor. ‘We are engaged in the study of church history. Why
do you ask?’
“ ‘ Because I am an officer
of the board of health,’ said the uninvited visitor. ‘I see that your meeting
is in contradiction of the board’s order. It must disperse.’
“ There was some
further conversation. While it was in
progress, there came from an adjoining apartment, loud sounds of merriment
mingled with blatant strains of a pianola.
“ ‘What is going on in
there?’ enquired the officer.
“He was told that there was
probably a social gathering, but that he had better go and find out himself. He
did so. Opening the door, he found a party of seven persons in the apartment,
having a good time. Asking the nature of the proceedings, he was informed that
it was a social gathering.
“ ‘In that case,’ said he, ‘I
have no authority to interfere so he took his departure.
“But he had not finished his
duty. He was bound to see that his order for the dispersion of Mr. Taylor’s
class of three was obeyed. Mrs. Taylor, glancing out of the window, saw him
waiting in front of the house watching the door, and called the attention of
her husband to the solitary figure keeping vigil there. So, in a spirit of
mischief, it was decided that the three students should give the sentinel the
slip, and they took their departure by a rear exit.
“ The weary minutes dragged
on, and still the lonely sentinel kept watch outside. Finally, concluding the
majesty of the health board was being defied, he hailed a assing policeman, and
the two of them ascended to Mr. Taylor’s apartment and demanded admittance. Of
course, they were promptly admitted.
“ ‘You are defying my order,’
said the officer sternly. ‘I must insist on the immediate dispersal of your
class.’
“ ‘Why, my good man,’
replied Mr. Taylor mildly, ‘they went away long ago. If you doubt my word, you
may search my premises.’
“Whereupon the health
officer and his grinning companion withdrew, the former looking very
crestfallen.
“From this incident it would
appear that the officers vested with the authority to enforce the board of
health’s restrictive order have been instructed to discriminate in favor of
some gatherings and against others. Three students meeting in his private
apartment for the purpose of studying church history constituted a dangerous
assemblage in defiance of the order of the board, but a party of twice the size
meeting in an apartment of the same size for the purpose of having a jolly
social time, was an innocent gathering with which it was not the business of
the health officer to interfere.
“Is it the theory where two
or three Sunday School are gathered together, thither the ‘flu germ is strongly
attracted, while ‘social gatherings’ have no attractions for him? Or is it held
that the study church history predisposes the human system to influenza, but
that laughter and song to the accompaniment of a pianola act as a sort of
prophylactic?
“Whatever the explanation of
the mystery, the experience of Mr. Taylor and his little class of students in
church history serves to illuminate the fact that, whatever claim may be made
with regard to an Englishman’s home being his castle, it is not true that a
Canadian’s home is his castle when health officers are prowling around.”1
1 “Canadian’s
Home is Not His Castle When Ban is On : Experience of Rev. E.H. Bowden Taylor
With Majesty of Health Board Clearly Proves This : ‘Gathering’ Dispersed : Three
Students Not Allowed to Study, But Party of Seven Permitted to Stay in Same House”
Hamilton Herald. December 09, 1918.
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