Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1888-10-06
Col j. c. Clarke on the Mississipui
Quarantine system.

-" u.tliiO pyhItm.
COL J. c, Clarke, the. level, headed
manager of the NJ. Il 0. Railroad.
III Tue following statement to a re.
porter OF the Mobile register, shows
inc abSurbity OF the quarantine
which the.towns along the line OF that
ROAD IN this State, are irving to ell
force.
Mr. Clarke said that he was lust at
At present more interested in the
MlSslsslppi local quarantine than in
awning else. AS at present man
aged there is absolutely no system,
ana 1t is almost impossible to run a
TalIroad train through that country.
Every group of houses. every settle.
llieht IS a municipality, and has laid
uoWh It's law about the way travel
sllal DC carried on its jurisdiction.
some places are %quarantined against
Ihe whole world. The people seem to
DC entirely beside themselves, and
haruIS know what they are doing.
"For this" said Mr.. Clarke, 81
wrots to DIR. Writ johnson last NIGHT,
suggesting some uniform system of
local quarantine,..in ordcr,that the rail-
roau could know what could be done
and what could not be done, and
could thus cooperate with. the
Board of Health and the people in
protecting them against the spread of
inc injection. AS at present arrang-
cd, there is nothing certain. There
are no arrangements tor the deposit
at local quarantine stations of persons
who come by the trains. There are
no stations for detention of passcn-
gers by the railroad. Simply and
solely the order is: "You can't get off
hercn That not only makes It i'm
possible tor us to cooperate with the
health authorities but forces us to run
the trains through, neither taking nor
leaving passengers. We cannot do
business that way. These things
should all be arranged before the
scare comes, in preparation for such
Scarcs. AS it is now the damage from
the operation Of local guarantees is
almost as great as if each community
had indeed the yellow fever.
"ln Meridian there was the greatest
excitement yesterday, although there
was and is no fever there. The peo.
pie held three meetings during the
day, and | was told there were dozens
persons speaking at once, with no
unity OF opinion on anything, At the
there were hundreds of trunks
waiting the arrival OF the trains, The
people seemed to be terribly excited
and anxious to get away to any place
they could, One mali came in while |
was talking 10 the ticket agent. "Giye
me a ticket he exclaimed. "Where
asked the agent, "AnyHhcre ont
Of this internal town." he cried. He
was so scared he did not ARE where
ne went.
Macon, Miss, held meetings also, but
here seemed some sense prevailing
want to quarantine and stop The trade
lDlcss it is necessary TODD so. They
lcard there were cases OF fever in
They were badly scared,
,ut they determined to telegraph to
)r. Blank. at Meridian, to learn what
vas the situation there. DR.. Blank
vas perhaps busy attending to the
meetings in his own town, so he did
lot answer the inquiry, or perhaps
he answer was misscnt. At any rate
he Macon people did not receive any
.nswer. They took that as an indica-
ion that the Meridian people were
hiding their infection, so a ) O'Clock
yesterday evening they slapped on a
quarantine against Meridian.
"Lauderdale has Q~uarantined a.
,ainst the world. But that did not
prevent three or four passengers from
of there last night, If it were
ranged So that there should be de-
ontiUn stations and a certain period
# quarantine for each place, the pub
iC would not take such extraordinary
tops to break through the line, In
act the quarantine is broken because
f its very severity, Under the pres
Mt system human ingenuity is pitlcd
gainst human obstinacy..and mroas-
nableness, with the result that ingcn.
ity frequently triumphs, Thus the
~uarantinc is often broken. And OF
hat use isa quarantine that is disre-
or broken through?
why, yesterday as | was coming
own, | heard two passengers talking
, another relative to a quarantine at
Ich and such Il place. i have no
erstiiicatc,' said one. Then after a
he said to the gentleman be-
ind him: Here, John, you write me
certiticatG.' To this request the gen.
eman complied, writing out a certif-
ate that the traveller had come from
lacOn and had not been'n,an affected
Signing thisswilh his own
anne he handed it TO the traveller who
emarked: Il had just as leave
ave this as a certificate from Writ
ohnson himself. II will past just as
ell"