E. C. Cunningham’s Ode to LaGrippe, Randolph, Alabama http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/randolph/newspapers/lagrippe.txt ============================================= USGENWEB PROJECT NOTICE: In keeping with the USGenWeb policy of providing free information on the Internet, this data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Project Archives to store the file permanently for free access. This file is copyrighted and contributed by: William Fischer, Jr. ============================================= November 2003 LA GRIPPE ---------------------------- Please disinfect my lines this week Before they go to press. Should you not know why thus I speak, You easily may guess. I have a case of old Lagrippe, As one can plainly see, And do not even want a dog To catch the thing from me. Physicians now regard the grip As catching quite as sin, And where it finds a door ajar They say it waltzes in. Therefore, your readers who desire To be both safe and sane Will shun unfumigated thoughts Of a grip victim’s brain. Alas! Bet dares not grant a kiss Like those when we were young While germs are swarming on my lips And roosting on my tongue. I ache all over day and night— I wriggle, twist and squirm, Like you have seen, on embers hot, A poor, expiring worm. There’s not a muscle or a joint That moves with normal ease. That symptomatic ache affects My shoulders, back and knees. Of all diseases known to man There’s nothing half so mean. It hits us in the head and heel, And all the way between. Prize fighters have more self respect, They say ‘tis a disgrace, To deal a man, because you can, A blow below the waist. Some D.D.’s think it was Lagrippe (I cannot see the point) That touched poor Jacob on the thigh And put it out of joint. A case of grip, a school-boy knows, And I am here to say, Would sure have wallowed Uncle Jake Long ere the break of day. These rhymes we write with throbbing head And with a nervous hand; Therefore, we feel it right to let Our critics understand That they should feel as bad as we, Or just a trifle worse, Before they mention one mistake, Then give us fits—IN VERSE. E. C. CUNNINGHAM, Roanoke, Ala. [From The Roanoke Leader (Randolph County, Alabama), 31 March 1915] ---------- La Grippe was the common term for influenza. Little did the writer know that the worst influenza outbreak would occur only a few years later, when the Spanish Flu decimated millions worldwide between 1918 and 1920. D. D. stands for “Doctor of Divinity,” i.e. ministers.