Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-08-02
THE LEPER SCARE.

The whole East country seems TO be agi-
| tated about the threatened advent of two
Chinese lepers, whom the sensational DR..
| O'Donnell declares he has en- route for exhi-
bition in Eastern cities. Whether he has
any lepers for the show business is not
now the question. The significance of the
matter is the unanimous and nervous pro-
test the East makes againt lepers being
brought over the Rocky Mountains at all
| The excitement the threat of O'Donnell has
aroused is very amusing. The people who
are so fearful of contamination
are the same who have sneered
at California about the danger of
our being driven to maintain leper
colony, as one of the results of encouraging
Chinese immigration Their views appear
to have undergone radical change now
that ODonnell proposes to give the East a
specimen of the evils ofunrestricted Chinese
importation. No sympathy has ever been
extended to California when she has pro
tested against being forced to maintain
lepers. But the fact is that We have suffi-
cient lepers now to stock large leper col
ony, and with a solitary exception they
are Chinese. Twenty years ago leprosy
was laughed at in the Sandwich Islands
to-day it threatens the destruction of the
population, and is the one great curse of the
Hawaiian kingdom. What it will be in
California ten years hence, if not stamped
out at once, can be pictured by even the
dullest fancy.
THE sanitary meeting to be held tonight
should be careful to avoid being swamped
By multitude of counsel. 1t is certain
that no plan for the Improvement Of the
sanitary condition can be advanced to which
some objection cannot be raised. The great
thing TO be done is to do something and
that right speedily. 1t is delay that is our
danger We should have entered upon
this sanitary work year ago and more
and that we did not do so is to our everlast-
ing shame. Now, when it is impossible to
do anything well in time, he is simply a
public enemy who will propose to take the
chances, and delay until another season.
Something must be done First, in the way
of cleansing filth pits-to fill them up and
dig new ones is one suggestion, but the
better plan is TO clean them out at once by
a large and active force; second, TO cleanse
and disenfect sewers and drains third, to
see that cesspools are cleansed, disinfected
and ventilated into upper air; fourth, to
dispose of the city sewage by discharge into
the river-in three miles it will not be
found to affect the water Just as at BTc
men the sewage Of the city does not affect
the river Weiser for five miles, though the
population is 11200O; fifth TO do some
thing, the speediest and most radical thing
possible, with China slough and the stag
nant waters south of the city; sixth, to
have q corps of competent officers make q
house-to-house inspection, and denounce
foul premises to the Health officer Sup
pose all this costs much money; suppose
it compels US to go into greater debt; TO
strain the law, indeed. Shall we fear to
do the work and take the risk of greater
ills? Ifyellow fever reaches us the cost to
the people of this city, III cold dollars, will
not be counted except by the million, to
say nothing Of human suffering and desc
lation that must ensue, and the loss of
prestige. Better to spend any amount in
thousands now, to vote special taxes, to
pile up debt, than to invite the incoming of
cholera or yellow fever this year, or the
next