By January 29, 1925, the story of Nome's pending fate was front-page news in Cleveland and other cities. While the time-sensitive nature of the crisis lent itself to daily updates, a lack of communications from the storm-bound region left room for imagination and occasional embellishment by writers. At the core of the drama was an understanding of the disastrous effects of contagious diseases. Americans were no stranger to the ravages of epidemics; with the return of United States soldiers following the Great War, transmittable diseases such as tuberculosis and typhoid fever flourished in the increasingly urbanized nation. Most significantly, the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 killed over 675,000 Americans, and infected over a quarter of the nation's populace. The American public witnessed the consequences of epidemics only recently, and there was no question as to the urgency of the situation in Nome. | Date: 1925 | Source: Cleveland Plain DealerDownload Original File
