Quarantine Has Been Lifted By Health Boards

*All theaters, moving picture shows, pool and dance halls were allowed to open immediately [i.e. Saturday 12/21 afternoon]; churches allowed to hold services today.*People must still try their best to avoid crowds in all the above places, and in stores and streetcars.*Before the Health Board decided to lift the ban, “attorneys representing the theatrical interests instituted injunction proceedings in the Thirty-Seventh District Court to test the authority of the Health Board in keeping show houses closed. The hearing had been set for noon Saturday, but City Attorney R. J. McMillan asked for a postponement until 3 o’clock. In the meantime the health officials had lifted the quarantine, and the injunction case was dismissed by agreement, with the plaintiffs to pay the costs.”*Mayor Sam C. Bell, the City Commissioners, City Health Officer Dr. W. A. King, and Chief of Police Frederick Lancaster, against whom the theater injunction was brought, were surprised that the Health Board was being accused of discriminating against theaters. *Mayor Bell: “I want it plainly understood that the quarantine was not raised on account of the injunction sought by the show men. And if the time comes again when the influenza is threatening the lives of our citizens, we will put the ban on for the third time, injunction or no injunction. The Health Department cannot afford to place dollars above human lives, and I regret that any business man in the city would assume this attitude.” Dr. King echoed these statements.*Dr. H. C. Hall of Austin, head of the bureau of social diseases for Texas, USPHS, visited the San Antonio Health Department Saturday 12/21 and congratulated Dr. King and Mayor Bell on their leadership in the flu fight. He stated that “San Antonio is more free of the disease than any other city in the State.”*Public schools will not reopen until after the Christmas holidaysNewspaper article1