Bedford Weekly Mail December 26, 1902 To Bedford, Mitchell Owes her Present Freedom from Smallpox The city council met Monday night and formally repeated the ordinance declaring a quarantine against Mitchell on account of smallpox in that place at the time the ordinances was passed Nov. 20th. The quarantine was suspended Saturday. When Bedford established a quarantine against Mitchell there were many cases of the disease in that town, the local quarantine was derided and little observed and the contagion was rapidly spreading. The action taken by Bedford, quickly followed by similar measures at Seymour, showed the people of Mitchell the necessity of a rigid quarantine, which was immediately established, and maintained in such an admirable manner that in four weeks the epidemic has been reduced from nearly 50 cases to the vanishing point. They are to be congratulated on their good work. Bedford quarantine was not established to do Mitchell any injury, as some of the people over there pretended to believe, but to protect our own city from the evil effects of Mitchell's loose observance of sanitary regulations. Smallpox has appeared here several times in the last three or four years, but has been stamped out each time by prompt and vigorous measures. The expense has been considerable in each case, but the money was well invested, as it prevented destruction of life, much suffering and the great financial loss that would have resulted from general epidemic. Mitchell owes it purification to the firm stand taken by Bedford.