Death's Toll Attributable To Bad Roads
Soliphone Newspaper
Monday , Oct. 27, 1919
Transcribed by Tina Easley
Child Near Stanford Dies of Diphtheria Because of Eight-Hour Delay Securing Antitoxin
Diphtheria claimed as a victim last night a little child belonging to Mr. and Mrs. Will Patton
of Route 1 , who were visiting friends near Stanford on the west side of Crowley's Ridge.
According to Dr. G. S. Self , the attending physician , the child's life might have
been saved but for the horrible condition of the roads in Greene County and the consequent delay
of eight hours in securing antitoxin. A messenger was dispatched from Stanford
at eleven o'clock last night with instructions to come to the Lamb-Garner
drug store in Paragould and secure antitoxins .An automobile could not be used and
the trip was made on horseback. The messenger arrived at Paragould at four o'clock
this morning , secured the medicine and returned to Stanford , but in the meantime the
child had died . Physicians are sure that had the roads been in condition to permit the
use of an automobile the child's life might have been saved.