San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-08-21
SMALL POX QUARANTINE.
An Inside View of the situation
What John Bull Says Anent the
Tie-up-SOme Fool Americans
As WelI-What a San


Tie-up-SOme Fool Americans
As WeIl-What a San
Antonian Thinks.
PIEDRAs NEGRAs, Mex, Aug. 10.
Daily LIGHT
DEAR SIR:-Thinking you might
be interested to know something
about the condition of the small pox
question here, and believing / can
give you truthful statement of what
l have seen and observed / take the
liberty to write you, leaving it to you
what use you wish to make of my
communication, which necessarily
will be a pretty long one. Quaran-
tine was declared at II p. M, July "a,
before which time got over to Eagle
Pass and home the next morning.
Spending pleasant three weeks va
cation at home in San Antonio /
returned here last week to find
everybody on both sides of
the Rio Grande chatting under
the restraints which are the natural
result of every quarantine. Eagle
Pass is probably suffering in its busi-
ness from the effects of the embargo
more than this place, because many
foreigners who earn their money here
live in Eagle Pass or otherwise spend
a large portion of their earnings there.
The quarantine changes this to
marked degree, OF course. 1t also, in
a great many instances, separates
family men who must earn their live
lihood here, from their families, who
for various reasons live in Eagle Pass.
This is the most disagreeable feature
of the quarantine. To quite number
of young society men who are en-
ployed here and for whom it has
always been necessity to visit Eagle
Pass nightly the restrictions of the
quarantine are very CALLING.
There seems to be no dlffitulty at
tached to the movement of freight
and merchandise, and 1 don't think
the merchants here are very much
harmed or Inconvenience. In fact
the quarantine appears to affect
the individual only, curtailing such
liberties as he has been used to, and
the loss of which are In most cases a
great Inconvenience without more Sc
rious results.
The native population did not at
first like the action of the Texas state
authorities, but they appear to be
better satisfied now as they
see that they are not great
ly harmed by the quarantine.
The kick against the measure comes
from large portion of the foreign
residents here who are compelled
nolens volens to stay in p. n, and
these are the ones who are making
efforts to have the embargo raised.
At two meetings held for that pur-
hotel, | attended upon invitation.
Among the foreigners here we have q
large contingent OF United States citi-
zens and subjects of Great Britain,
Spaniards and a sprinkling of Ger
mans, Frenchmen and some Italians,
etc; but only the two first named ma
tionalities, as far as know, took act
ual part in the two meetings which 1
attended. Here the great American
Il call him so, as it is the accepted
designation for citizens of the
United States of North America)
was in his glory, and il mo-
tions, resolutions and the whole
list of parliamentary action could kill
smallpox, there couldn't be a case
anywhere around here for a year to
come, and in future microbes would
hunt quieter fields. The only takers,
movers, disputers or discussers were
Americans, with the marked eXcep-
ton of one British subject who put In
his licks like true Johnny Bull, and
l enjoyed seeing triumphant smiles
diffuse themselves over the faces of
the Englishmen present whenever he
spoke, and nod in approval of his re-
marks. To me 1t appeared as though
the foreign residents here in meeting
assembled all looked upon the quar-
antine as a piece of foolishness on the
part of the Texan authorities, and the
deliberations of both meetings were
consequently colored by a ground
swell of feeling born of such views.
AS a proof of this / cannot help but
mention the resolution of our repre-
sentative over here. The United
States consul, who, upon the assur-
ance given him bv the U. S. post sur
geon in Eagle Pass, made motion
(which / think was seconded, put
and carried, but was finally at the
suggestion of wiser heads either mod
flied or not allowed to appear in
the papers and petitions sent to the
Texas authorities) the purpport Of
which was in effect "That no
civilized country ever declared
quarantine against smallpox"
The mover, (who is repub-
lican like you and in addition Mich
igander (or goose?) wished of course
everyone will readily see, to reflect
upon or at least show his superiority
over or dissatisfaction with the wild
and woody, uncivilized Texan, but 1t
30 mn fhot In HnInn on q q