Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-10-13

the usual teleBraphlc announcements of
| the rise and progress of the plague in
Jacksonville Fla, and from that point TO
Decatur, Ala, Jackson, Miss, and other
points. | have also seen one or TWO quite
valuable admonitory articles from noted
writers, especially one from Henry Guy
Carleton.
In my history of the epidemic at Shreve-
port, La, in 1858, published in the RECORD
UNION three years ago, showed that The
disease was brought up the Red river from
Alexandria and Natchitoches, the highest
points it had ever reached prior to that
| year, In freight on a steamer which a sud
den and unexpected rise in the river had
made the fatal messenger OF woe and
death. H. G. Carleton, in the letter to the
New y ork World above alluded to-. saws :
| Clothing, cotton bales, rags of all descrip-
tions, are favorite fomites or convevors of
yellow fever. The epidemic of 1878 in
Memphis was traced TO trunk conveying
the effects of man who had died with
suspicious symptoms in New Orleans. His
widow in Memphis got the trunk, opened
1t, let the germs loose Gu congenial soil.
was stricken herself, and thus the plague
entered, although the town had declared
shotgun quarantine against New Orleans,
and was at that very time refusing to re-
ceive even the mails from that city"
This account of the Introduction of the
yellow fever into Memphis in 1873 would
do, substituting clerk on the levee for the
woman and a crate of crockeryware for the
dead man 5 trunk, for an account of the in
| PRODUCTION OF the fever into Shreveport in
1888; Poor young Hamlet partly unpacked
the fatal crate of straw and stone, and in
less than seventy-two hours was dead-the
first OF over 300 who died in Shreveport
that year of the scourge But that was
| thirty-tive years agO-long before courage
ous and self sacrificing science hid plucked
at least part of the heart of its mystery
out OF the fostering carcass OF the dread de-
stroyer. As much as the comet, that CEN
turies ago frightened one King into clols-
ter. yellow fever moves in dread cycles,
ooedlent to order, heaTen's first law"
1t has It's times and its seasons. And,
like the comet, it has its metes and bounds.
| The flaming cimeter OF the skies may cause
a momentary perturbation OF an orb COM
pared to which the sphere we live on is as
hsndfui of sand. But neither Neptune
nor Uranus, nor any orb in space, turn aside
from their appointed paths because of the
celestial wanderer which trails its immeas-
urble length of light close TO their shining
confines. This yellow pestiIence fright
ems better men than the Spanish King and
sends them shrieking to the cloisters of the
groves-God's first temples Had the fee
ing monarch ordered his life Alright he
would have seen no portent in the flaming
torch of heaven, that made a recluse of
him. Had the business men of Florida or
| dered their lives Alright there need have
been DO tumult in Florida and her sister
States to-day, or else the experience of al
most an entire decade must 60 for naught.
Let Mr.. Carleton, already referred to, in.
troduce gentleman whom l have had the
good fortune recently TO meet frequently
and discuss this subject with. Mr.. Carle-
ton says:
| Yellow fever is a disease indigenous to the
semi-tropics. 1t finds perpetual home in the
Antllies. Havana, Vera Cruz and Tampico are
| It's home. 1t finds at long intervals a suitable
| habltatlon on the southern coast of the United
! States, and Brownsville, Galveston, New Orleans.
| Mobile, Pensacola and Jacksonville have been
| often visited The general opinion was formed
| III 1853 that it had become acclmated to Lou
| lslana SOIL and was, like the sugar-cane a local
| product. to reappear each year, but the results
| OF the superb work done by Dr. Joseph Holt
who succeeded Dr. Chopin as President of the
| Board of Health of that State and by yirtue of
| which New Orleans has remained free from the
disease for nine years, has exploded that theory
ana SHOWN the value OF quarantine against the
| Antilles during those months in which the con-
| oltions favorable to propagatirg the disease
exist IN the South, viz from May lst to October
| seth. 1t was shown conclusively that the great
"
| the unloading of the ship Emily b. Souder. from
Tampco. Two of her sailors were stricken with
the disease after landing, and a virulent focus
| of infection was established on the levee wheTe
she emptied her cargo.
Now, let DR.. Holt speak for himself in
relation to the epidemic now raging in
jacksonville. In a letter to the New Or
| leans Times Democrat, bearing date August
l4th of this year, DR.. Holt says:
knowing that their methods oF protaotio,, ~,
ployed are hopelessly futile, not to say absurd
aud injurious, desire to suggest to the citizens
| OF Florida a line OF sanitary action which
claims AT least the merit of being strictly "a
tional, scientific, humane, and in the expert
ence OF the louisiana Board of Health. sue
cesStul.
1t became my duty at one time, anticipating
the present disaster, to watch closely the con-
duct of fhe health officials and others concerned
in the quarantine and health management of
those places In Florida associated with the in
troductlon and subsequent appearance of vel
low fever in the State, and l make the charge
holding IN my possession the specifications to
| prove that the fearful distress which has come
upon the people OF Florida land no better peo-
pie exist on this contnent) is the direct result
| of a combination of ignorance, selfshness and
concealment, the ultimate consequence of a
servile subordination to the interests of a rail
road and steamship line. Florida finds to-day
the lives of her citizens, and before she is done
with this, millions of dollars sacrificed to rail
road and steamship lines aud to petty local
| q human life.
Knowing the origin of the yellow fever in
| Florida, it is exasperating beyond measure to
contemplate the mischief that is being caused
and the exaggerated terror in which every
State in the South stands at this ID oment on ac-
count of hardihood, negligence and deception
| both by suppression of facts and direct denial,
and all from motives of pure selfishness
The present trouble was clearly foreseen and
warning given, with the effect of involving a
contumacious and Tesentful reply from the
anti nf iy,txx
| the pestilence was introduced about the 10th of
May, last year, through a quarantine that
would have disgraced the fourteenth century
| Note in passing that as the Shreveport
| epidemic of 1853 was introduced in crate
of crockery packed in straw, brought from
| New Orleans to Alexandria and thence to
Shreveport, the Memphis epidemic of 1878
in trunk of clothing brought from New
| Orleans, so the great epidemic of 1888
was brought to New Orleans in ship from
TamPico, and the point on the levee where
her cargo was discharged became "a vio-
lent focus of infection. DR.. Holt has in
was introduced into Florida at the town of
Tampa, frome some point in the Antilles,
about the 10Th of May, 1887. as above
stated. Now here is cumulative testimony
| all valuable, as Is not generally the case
with cumulative testlmony-as to how
yellow fever can be introduced and is trans
ported from one point to another and in
| troduced into communities.
Here, / say-as | said in your columns
| three years ago-here is food for thought
| for the people of the State of California. |
| love the State too well, exile as / am, ever
| TO say one word to retard for moment
her growth and prosperity. But believing
| the State to be no more exempt from dam
ger in this direction than q dozen other
States now quarantined at the muzzle of
the gun, or the point of the bayonet
against infected points, warn your author
tiles to see to it that no focus of Infection
is permitted to find lojgment in the
Stale. Remember, these are the days of
rapid transportation; of, in many cases,
personal, and in many, corporate disre-
gard of public danger and public suffering,
provided the individual escapes suffering
or loss. or the corporation keeps its balances
on the credit side 1t is getting late in the
eason and the disease may not become epi-
demie in points already infested 10
Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana
~