Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1884-09-16
The ignorance and Filth That Abound
In Naples.
THE ENTHUSIASM FOR THE KING
The Great Good the Monarch Has DOne--'
Superstition Of the People
Extravagant Stories Of
Miracles.
YEsTERDAY'sFRIeHTFUL DEATH RATE

| Sometimes as hgh as QUIZ. montn ior
single room is demanded. The better sec
tons of the town are deserted and all thu
shops in the Toledo are closed at 4 in the
afternoon. The theatres are all shut
Many of the poorer streets are as silent a:
death. Even the cafes are closed, and the
only sign of life is the joiners hammering
the rough cofins together. In some oi
these streets absolutely everybody is
Either Dead or is Sick.
In one street, the Via Duchessa, thirty cases
occurred in single house The smell Of
burned sulphur is everywhere, and the
wretched people of the poorer classes are
either stupe6ed or frantic. Meanwhile
the devotion and daring of the King
and the Archbishop have had the ef-
feet OF dispeling somewhat the supersti'
tion about poison and sllaying the class
hatred which ragged at first. But the public
morale is still worse than it is possible to
describe. A mob attacked in the Via del
Purgatorio a man whom they suspected OF
throwing poisonous powder over some cakes
exposed for sale on the piazza, dragged him
back and
Made Him Eat the Cake
until the owner interfered in selfdefense.
Out of the sheer perversity the people eat
more fruit and vegetables than usual. In
the piazza in front ofthe Municipal Palace
two loaferS got big basket of figs and in
the presence of large crowd began to eat
| them on a wager The police marched
L, "a al A ,phn calltuu
fruit on the corner of the Piazza del Mar
TIM tell over dying OF the cholera. The
crowd made a bonfire of her chair, stand,
and then left her to die Nobody would
carry her to the hospital.
Although the disease is
Generally of a Mild Character
compared with the number Of cases, there
are many instances ike the foregoing Of its
startling suddenness, Several people have
already fallen down in the streets and been
carried off dead. A lady who was taken
with vomiting during mass died before she
| reached home. The terrors Of the plague
have been intensified by the scoundrelly &C,
ton of the butchers, who trebled the price
of meat as soon as the panic began, but the
King was followed in his carriage BY mob
Of women shrieking to have the price of
meat reduced, and the officials accordingly
took steps to import cattle and reduce
prices. People in the slums still defy the
laws boldly. Yesterday the body ofa wo-
man was buried in the little garden of her
home, and when the police arrested the hus-
band
A Great Mob
threatened TO rescue him. Under the in
spiration of the Archbishop the priests are
now exerting every effort to discourage pro-
cessions and the like, though with little sue,
cess. There has been an enormous revival
of religious sentiment in Naples. The
street shrines which were walled up by Gar
ibaldi in 1860 have all been opened, and
the whitewash scraped off the holy pic
lures. Crowds wild with Joy watch the
work and hail with shouts each restoration.
| The professions are continued in the poorer
streets, chiefly by women. The churches
are thronged and street affairs are erected.
| The police do not dare interfere with the
altars. Most extravagsnt stories of miracles
worked are received with credulty by the
populace. The hospital and ambulance
system have been oyerpowered by
The Awful Increase in Deaths,
and for day or two it has been necessary
to leave corpses waiting so long that they be
came putrid, this adding vastly to the con
tagion. The situation in this respect, how
ever, has been improved by the King or
dering the military to give assistance
| Scores of old omnibuses covered with black
have been converted into hearses.
The heroiSm of King Humbert makes the
most welcome royal picture Europe ha:
looked on for years. The King is accom-
panied always by his brother Amadeus. He
has visited all the hospitals and the afflicted
quarters, scattering money and kind word:
right and left. He wished to explore the
Fondaici, containing probably the most
hideous human habitations in Christendom
with its narrow courtyards, its houses sc
feet high, the sunlight and air excluded, and
the flthiest rooms, each with dozen or if
teen inmates of both sexes. There is no
water there to wash with; the place is
Alive With Nermin;
it is literal sink of pestilence, and contains
fully one-fourth of the population Of Naples
All effort to dissuade the King from going
had failed, when despairing official cried
out: You have no right TO commit suicide.
| Nor have you right to deliberately murder
many Of these unfortunate people who will
follow YOU even into that hotbed Of death!
Upon this the King bowed and got into his
carriage again. All classes are becoming
demoralized as the horror grows, but there
can be no doubt that the Kings example
has had the effect of preventing whs,
would have otherwise been fearful panic.
In Northeast Italy the disease about holds
its own. La Spezia has had over 200
deaths and is still seat Of the epidemic
| There have been no deaths at Turin since
the Tth. and the disease seems to have dis
appeared from Cosenza and parts oi
Miurizio. The explanations of the fright,
full rayages in La Spezis and Cuneo is
found in the local custom Of preserving al
refuse from the houses for fertilizing pur
poses in
called the "pozzo." This is connected with
the street gutter by an overflow pipe which
carries of the surplus liquid. WheneTel
there is a sudden rain, water breaks into tia
pozzo and then out again, spreading the
contents of the cistern, with its pestilentia
vapors, throughout the city, and finally int
drinking wells and cellars. An effort wa
made at the outset to have these cistern'
cleaned, but the people armed themselye:
70 protect their valuable contents, and th'
officials shrank from fight over the mat
ter At the same time the authorities wer'
maintaining at vast expense useless cor
don of guards about each city all over Italy
/ MANY gentle people have died of the diseas'
in Italy, including officials, doctors au'
nuns. The pest is lowering about Rome
but that city IS very clean, and the weathe
is now so cool that the capital may escape
There has been one case so far in Fenic'
and probably there have been more. A
elsewhere, the lunatic asylum prove to b
the choicest breeders Of the plague II
Parma and Naples
YESTERDAYS DEATH RATE.