"Typhoid Mary."
Mary Mallon is again back in quarantine. Who is Mary Mallon? She is "Typhoid Mary," the germ-carrier. She is not suffering with the dread disease, but wherever she goes she brings it. Her powers as a carrier of typhoid germs are so well known to the doctors that for the past three years she has been kept on North Brother Island, New York City, in strict quarantine. Released, she became a cook in the Sloane Hospital, New York. Promptly twenty-five women came down with typhoid fever, and two of them died. No wonder she was taken back to North Brother Island; the only wonder is that she was allowed to leave it.
Typhoid Mary should have our deep sympathy. Her plight is through no fault of her own. She is kept a prisoner, not because of her misdeeds, but for the safety of the public. She is an innocent menace.
There are other germ-carriers, however, that are not so innocent. There are persons who spread moral contagion wherever they go and are quite unconscious of it, though they should not be.
One carries around with him an atmosphere of flippancy regarding the most serious subjects. He is full of jokes on the Bible, on missions, and ministers. He thinks he is a sincere Christian, and would be shocked if he could know what harm he does. But he should know.
Here is a moderate drinker. He is actually a moderate drinker. His physical and mental make-up is such that he can really "drink or let it alone." So he goes through life treating right and left, and sending upon the downward way scores of young fellows who have not his will power or his cool physical temperament, and who cannot, like him, "drink or let it alone."
Look around you and you will find, however small your circle of acquaintances, that it contains several "typhoid Marys" or "typhoid Johns." Would that they could be quarantined as effectively as Mary Mallon!