From the pastoral letter of Cardinal Mercier in Brussels: “If God allows the germs of a contagious disease to spread among your ranks, the most glorious prospects are destroyed for the moment. Therefore, above all, place your trust in God.”
(Ulk, Berlin, 1916) (How’s that for an odd bit of wartime propaganda?)
(Complaints have been published not only against the delay in the delivery of correspondence, but also against the violation of letters.)
Lady: “An open letter! I don’t get it! I have no secrets, but I think this is an abuse!”
Postman: “Now, “madame”! Accept the letter! If it is from Europe, don’t you know that everything there is in conflict?… And if it is from here, don’t you know that it is necessary to air the correspondence, because of the mosquitoes and typhus…”
(O Malho, Rio de Janeiro, 1916)
Dr. Oswaldo Cruz [Brazil’s pioneering bacteriologist, who had recently left the public health service]: “Hello! … I already dealt with you in the war…”
The Typhus: “Whaddaya mean, doc! After you left the Hygiene Department, sir, I was no longer the master of leaving Rio de Janeiro!
I’ve been working for the donkey… Now I’m operating at the Botanical Garden; but I still have a lot to do in other neighborhoods! …”
(O Malho, Rio de Janeiro, 1916) (I surely require correction with the idioms here.)
Landlord (unpleasantly surprised by visiting aunt): “Aunt, didn’t you get my letter where I wrote to you that scarlet fever, dysentery, and smallpox are prevalent in the building?”
Aunt: “It’s nothing, dear young man… I had myself vaccinated against all three diseases!”
(Fliegende Blätter, Munich, 1916)
With typhus endemic on the eastern front during World War I, trains returning from the front had to be fumigated.
(Tolnai Világlapja, Budapest, 1916)
Sic Transit Pestilentia 