The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918, by Oscar Jewell Harvey

most of whom sacrificed much time, many of whom sacrificed their health, and several gave their lives, in the care, nursing and relief of the stricken people of Luzerne County during the world epidemic, and whose measures of relief were gratefully received by our people, many of whom were aliens and strangers, who, understanding little of our language, nevertheless understood the care and love bestowed upon them at the time of their great affliction.

History records many instances of epidemics, famines and wars, where measures of relief were taken for those who were most sorely afflicted, and the battlefields of our recent war scintillate with heroism. Individuals, platoons, whole companies and regiments offered themselves for their fellow men, and future historians will vie with one another in their endeavor to have live the thousands of heroic incidents in the great World War, to the end that they may serve as lamps for the feet of coming generations of freemen.

Nevertheless, civic life—those back home, those who were not inspired in the presence of the glare and pageantry of military life, those whose call to duty was heard and as readily performed in no less a measure of satisfaction—were willing and anxious to take part in the work demanded of humanity, and were ready to give their all, if need be, for those who so sorely needed succor.

We are proud of the citizens of Luzerne County—we are proud of the men and women who live on the fair hills and in the valleys of this County—and as a people we are most grateful for the services so willingly offered, the sacrifices so commonly made, and the heroic work so opportunely accomplished.

This devotion given and shown to their fellow men, to women and to helpless children, testifies splendidly to a love of country and of fellow men, as well as to that love of humanity taught by the lowly and great Nazarene.

This expression, so briefly recorded here, is intended as a testimonial of, and appreciation for, each individual identified with the care and relief of the stricken people of Luzerne County. A record is herewith preserved of the names, so far as known, of those who are thus entitled to receive the same.

The Committee in whose hands the organization and distribution of relief was placed, testifies in this brief way to the splendid work accomplished, and the highly successful co-operative movement of the State, County, Cities and Towns, and does so, with the thought that their fellow citizens, when they shall have read of the epidemic as here set forth, will feel that they are duly bound to express personally, and publicly, whenever occasion offers, something of their willingness to give a full measure of approval to those who made sacrifices in the work so nobly done.