On Oct. 23, 1918, St. Paul health officer Dr. B. F. Simon proudly announced that there had only been 1,442 suspected cases of influenza in St. Paul since the epidemic had begun. It was a typical report from Simon, who was always sure to characterize cases as “suspected,” or to dismiss them outright as “bad colds.”

Nevertheless, Simon slowly readied his city for the possibility of another spike in cases. On October 22, Simon and the City Council banned all public dances and special public meetings. A week later, Simon announced plans to limit the number of passengers on streetcars.

The difficulty was determining a number that would achieve the goal of keeping public transportation crowd-free, but would also not cause problems for cars crossing city lines. For example, it would cause confusion and resentment if a St. Paul-bound streetcar were forced to off-load passengers upon reaching the city limit in order to comply with a different regulation in St. Paul than was in use in its neighbor.