merelygifted:

In January 1919, San Francisco residents received some bad news: The second wave of the 1918 influenza was rolling through the city, and masks were mandatory once again.

They already knew the drill. On October 24, 1918, Mayor James Rolph, health officer Dr. William C. Hassler, and other authorities had mandated protective masks to prevent the spread of the disease, and the general public had quickly recognized the practice as a matter of life and death.

“A week ago I laughed at the idea of the mask,“ local Red Cross chairman John A. Britton told the San Francisco Chronicle at the time. “I wanted to be independent. I did not realize that the cost of such independence was the lives of others.”

While most San Franciscans rose to the occasion and volunteers organized mask-sewing events, there were still some staunch dissenters. Law enforcement officers doled out $5 fines for anyone who went mask-less in public, and a couple hundred people who failed to comply were even carted off to jail.

“John Raggi, arrested on Columbus Avenue, said he did not wear a mask because he did not believe in masks or ordinances, or even jail,” an article in the San Francisco Chronicle read. “He now has no occasion to disbelieve in jails. He is in the city prison.”  …