The Wilmingtonian., 1885-04-11
EGYPTIAN RAGS.
ITALIAN LAZZARONI USAGES
IN NEW YORK CITY.
what Wilmington Risks ON Account
ofsimIiar Conditions
Here

ilo'sdc iuunel uuCk, DuSIOn. 1ue cargo
has been held in quarantine, as the local au-
thoiites consider that there is not evidence
of the rags having undergone the prescrb-
cd disinfect'ng process.
In view of possible visit, this summer,
Of the dreaded cholera plague, it appears
that the better course would have been to
prescribe the importation of such cargoes al
together
Whether needessly or not, ordinary cti-
zens are sensitive upon the cholera ques-
ton. Their alarm is properly grounded as
scientific authorities have adduced compre-
hensibe arguments showing good reason for
that alarm.
Sanitation and hygiene though as meas
ure Theoretically appreciated by the masses
in the larger cities is notoriousiy undiscov-
cradle in fact Only the other day the
most extraordinary revelations, probably
possible on tue face of the earth, were
brought to light in New York City, the me-
tropolis of this country. A number of for
eigners were discovered having made their
dwellings, habitations, under the immense
city dump heaps on the river banks.
To properly grasp the idea Or the fact re-
lerred to, aud the practical impossibiity of
voluntary sanitative action in any sense ade-
quate when compared with the results of
compulsory sanitation, it should be remem-
bered that New York City has as efficient a
sanitary board as municipal conditions usu-
ally allow. Still the statement of one of its
executive officers detailing the facts that
scores of families carried existence in "dug-
outs" excavatcd from the sides of the ex-
ensve city dumping places, where hun
dreds of thousands of cubic yards of refuse,
ashes, offal, garbage, and in some instances
indescribable matter are built up in large
piles, to b. removed at future opportunity,
this assertion with exact details as to the
number of individuals IN each "honsehold," :"
with the startling though credible story that
the interior atmosphere of the novels was
nsupportable, that in some cases heaps of
putrid offal, collected for the sake of the
bones were arranged up in the corners, that
large iron kettles containing fragments Of
food refuse taken from ash barrels were seen
cooking for the daily meal of the unfurtu-
ening stories still of the domestic as well as
culinary arrangements were detailed before
the Board of Health, statements too filthy
for publication, relating how the sickening
novels reeked with ordure.
Now, if these things exist in New York
to-day, as they undoubtedly do. the above
being taken from New York Herald report
of the Board of Health meeting last week,
why should We take it for granted, here in
Wilmington, that our city is totally free
from plague spots. Everybody will recog.
nize that the foreigners referred to, living
like the ancient cave-dwelers, the troglo
dytes, under the ground, are Italians.
We have large number of them here
They should be looked after. Numbers o.
our citizens no doubt at this moment have
malodorous memories in regard to them
Certain stories are told now of their igno
rance and detestatiou of the civilization o.
saponijcation. Like the Russian aristocra
they detest cold water and fresh air,
The better classes see around them only
see only the clean cheerful kitchen, tht
bright green yard. They have given perso
nal and intelligent circumspecton as far al
they are able to the needs of hygiene auC
sanitation. But the faIlacy of arguing secu
rty to yourself when possibly your mex
neighbor harbors fostering plague spot il
apparent
There could be no more potent source fo
carriage and dissemination of cholera spore
tl,au Egyptian rags Many pounds of then
sspulchres and pyramids-the long swath
ing cerement bands torn from mummies-
but a large share is the accumulation q
filthy pestiierOus garments snatched iIou
the loathsome bodies Of those who have die
of disease and starvation while accompany
ing the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. Til
track of these caravans through the EgyE
tan and Arabian deserts is marked by til
skeletons of the infatuated beings, whl
many of them, at the inception of their joul
ney even, are physical wrecks and in the lai
stages of disease. AS they arrive at the Vi
r rious halting places, the holy wells, the
: slake their thirst with water, which, me
who have analysed it, assert is putrid wit
disease germs and foul enough to infect an
g who drink. Among these unfOrtunates
y engendered the plague we hear so much o
: Other sources of its origin are the filthy pu
!, lieus of Pera and Alexandria. The dei
e are thrown into shallow graves, and hard
. has the echo of the mourners' steps passC
t away when the scavengers appear, dogs al
vultures and in some localities the hycn
, which easily root up the corpse tearing al