New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-07-14
Gcicntly sane to suffer the penalties Of the
TIE 6orrHERN PLAGUE.


Tho latest reports from Memphis confirm the
belief that there was really no ground for the
frantic panic of last week. There is reason to
hope that the yellow fever Will not follow rs
deadly course this Summer IN that city aS
last year. When it was carried there last
August the place, according to heatihE' was
filthy beyond even the usual condlloh Oh
Southern towns. Miles OF Eicolson pave
q" mcnt were decaying. The soil was reekinR
with the ofal and excrota of ten thousanu
families. There was no organized system ny
(which garbage could be cartcd away. lie
Accommodations of forty years were decay
cling ON the surface" The Bayou GayoSo'
i'm which the foul matter of the city Il "r'iheu'
was stagnant and covered with putIid scum
from which was emitted foul eiiuvia Inc
city government, it is added "were deai 10
the appeals of the press" What was the
conseouence9 Let us look at figures, which
do not lie. for the answer. When the fever
broke out, 10000 people fed, many to die by
the waT many more to live as paupers IN
other communicable to suffer by the totai
cessation Of their business. OF the population
remaining, 1900, the Board OF Health re-
ported 1880 as attacked, OF whom one-thlrd
died Memphis received little less than halt
a million last Summer i'm food, medicine, money
and clothing from the North, beside other
unestlmatcd aid. Add to this downright waste
of human life health and property, the loss
TO her citizens by the storpagc OF all kinds oil
trade or business for four months, il we want
TO understand the economy OF dart. rive th0u-
sand dollars and stringent municipal laws would
have removed the filth which made breed
ing-placo for Death. We hear that "much was
"done during the Spring to clean the city''
Let us hope that it was enough.
We publish the details of the condition OF
this one city last July as given by one Of its
citizens, because it will serve as photo
graph of thousands Of Southern towns at TINS
moment; beautiful villages and cities boast
ING streets of stately dwellings where the
countless hedges Of roses and creamy maGno-
lias cannot hide the "foul ef1luyia" or the
"accumulatons of otial and excreta OF forty
"years decaying on the surface To this Is
usually added the drainage from grave
yards in the midst of the town. and as old as
itself, poisoning the water springs. Nor Is TINS
condition of affairs limited to the South. In
onc-half of the pretty country villages OF the
Middle and Eastern States the inhabitants
cling with a devotion which, considering the
danger, is positively heroic, to the filth OF
their drains and the poison of their reeklng,
ovcrcrowded burying-grounds. In how many
of such villages and towns toe, just now, are
the municipal governments deaf TO the re-
monstrances of the prcss2 Only let the
yellow fever reach one Of these places, and
its fate is as certain as that of Memphis.
Il. .tn 2 hfpr,
towns seem disposed to enforce a quarantine
with commendabe promptltude, and with a
severity which no doubt seems to the buSl-
ness classes Of Memphis harsh and cruel. 1t
Is not a matter in which business interests
can or ought to be consulted, being simply
one Of self preservation. If the steamer Sou
der from the West Indies had not been
allowed, for the sake OF her paltry cargo, to
come up to the levee at New-Orlcans last year,
with the sick purser on board, what limitiess
treasure in money and human life would
have been saved TO The country! In the large
cities, too, there is visible n feeble but
growing inclination to use measures Of pre-
caution instead of waiting until attacked.
Boston is reported rs being cleaner than for
many years. In this city, inspectors, physi-
raids upon the tenement-house districts, in
the effort to insure to every man his due 600
cubic feet of air but the streets are filthy,
and the foul smells continue undated
While we take poison into our lungs with
every breath, ii really does not seem material
whether we should have 600 cubic feet of
it or not. Philadelphia matches us in foul
streets, and possesses system of sewerage
which was reported by the Board OF Health
as u public nuisance two years ago, and which
gives ont the odOr of charnel-hOuse at
every street corner. We might 90 through
the roll of cities, Baltimore, Pittsburg, ETC.
Much of this suicidal carelessness may be ex-
planned by the fact that the ignorant classes
as Il rule, look upon all simple measures of
precaution as useless and eXtravagant; the
men who have contracts for the necessary
cleaning prefer to put the money in their
pockets, while the educated classes are made
Indifferent, we fear, by the knowledge that
usually they and their families are out OF
town during the fever months.
The National Board OF Health is empowered
to do good work, and seems disposed to do
it. But their aid can only be called in when
the danger has come. They assure us that
they "can call out both Army and Navy, if
necessary" 1t is not tho Army or Navy
which will serve after the plague is in the
house, but little common sense while it is
as now, at the door.
SUMNER BUSINESS