The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1878-11-06

LESSON ana the calls OF humanity. III the
crisis through which we have passed,
will leave no means unimproved for ac-
quainting themselves with the disease
and the most successful mode of treat
ment; and there this branch of the sub
iect may be safely left
Our correspondent invokes the speedy
action of the Legislature in making pro
vision for the poor and needy whose
orphanage and restitution have been
caused by the plague and enumerates
several communities to which such bene-
fits should be extended, Jackson among
others. Jackson will not ask to be
/ placed in this category Of an aims
seeker. Private charities ought to do
what the State is asked to perform. Let
the dead past bury its dead. But there
are duties devolving upon the Legjsla-
| ture Of most imperative nature. They
! have reference to the future, and should
not be postponed. The people of the
State ought to be protected against the
perils, and losses and intense anxiety and
actual horror of such another visitation;
and this can only be done by legislation
of the most stringent kind. The present
laws are wholly inadequate. The law
creating the State Board of Health APP
propriates no money to its use, and gives
it no power to establish guarantees ex-
cept as to infected households. BY care
full search and the use of a microscope a
little section in the Code of 1871 was
found to confer upon Boards OF Super
visions, certain powers to keep infectious
or contagious diseases out Of their limits,
but these powers were extremely con
tracted and have been stretched to the
utmost in numerous cases, as matter of
absolute seli-preservation, in obedience to
the higher law. No penalties are pre-
scribed for the violation of sanitary
regulations, which were enforced, not by
the fear of punishment to violators, but
by close watching and preparation to ex-
ercise force if need be. A writ of
Habeas Corpus would have been suffi
Gent for the release of any person
charged with violating county or munic
ipal regulations. A matter completely
involving the health and prosperity
the life and death of commu-
mites should not be left to
mere hazard The laws comforting
powers upon the State Board of Health,
municipalities and county authorities
should be clearly defined, and the pun
ishment prescribed for their violation
should be prompt and severe. Before
the war, the fever when it was trans
ported into the interior towns and cities
connected by water or railroad with the
seaboard cities, was never known to in |
wade the country districts. But the
freedom with which the colored popula
ton now travel under all circumstances, |
and their indifference to the consequences
of an epidemic, constitute reason for adj |
ditional safeguards which die not enter
the minds of legislators in providing the
present scanty means of protecting the
public health.
Past experience does not encourage the
belief that the epidemic the present year
will not be succeeded by another visitation
next year-and the next--and the next.
In Jackson, for example, the fever
ragged furiously in 1858. Her citizens
rested confidently in the belief that it
would not come again. But in 1854, it
ragged with nearly equal fatality; and again
ia 1855. 1t may be said thatno quaran-
line was established to guard against its
in either of those years.
True enough, but it was not the case
With New Orleans. Our town reposed
n false security upon the sanitary reg
llations of that city, and the result was
he long and terrible suffering which
,nsued. What is now wanted are safe
guards which will protect own State and
people from the scourge, without de
,endence upon the vigilance of other
States and communities. To this end,
10 human agency must be left nnem-
loved. We cannot afford to lapse into
to the warnings of the past
nd the dangers of the future. Should
he scourge overtake our people again it
viii be idle to look elsewhere for the char
lies that have been lavished so literally
v benevolent societies and CONNER
ial religious and other societies else
here the present season. It would be
for our people to ask, !:
nd humiliating to receive them, !
ven unaskel. The pestIlence found
5 unprepared in 1878; if it find
: so in 1879, or so or any other
ncceeding year, the fault will be our
wn. There is danger that it viii :
ome to us. There is danger that :
lere viii be hot beds left for its
.eds to spring forth and flourish with :
eadly effect the coming season. 4 great :,
ork is to be performed, and the sooner =
lr people and their agents realize il and 4
, about it, the better.
THR - National . friends of Colonel