Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-10-05
ROOMS LIKE CELLARS.
Your Shoes Will Mold While You
Sleep in the City Of Para.
NOT ONLY DAMP, BUT VERY HOT.
A Disease in Which Death Climbs Slowly
From Feet to Head.
TIE ONLY KNOWN CURE is In FLIGHT


pah-rah) is. by reason Of its situation on the
Equator, not only the hottest. but perhaps
the most unhealthful city on the globe, a
distinction which Its rivals on the Brazilian
coast do not attempt to emulate. Being
practically almost surrounded by water, it
is not only hot every. day in the year, but
correspondingly damp every night. At
this season it rains regularly at exactly A
o'clock every afternoon, which serves to
cool the parched atmosphere, rinse the tile
roofing of the houses and, in general terms,
to act as grateful shower bath to not only
the sweltering humanity, but likewise to all
inanimate nature.
The nights are always damp. We 60 to
sleep in upper floor rooms that are precisely
similar, as regards air. to those of damp
cellar in the States My shoes, left on the
floor alongside of my bed, became covered
with mold. Clothing that is hung in ward
robes and not aired daily also becomes 50
moldy that it leaves stain that cannot be
erased. Stockings are so damp in the morn
ing that one can scarcely draw them on.
IT DON'T KILL THE NATIVES.
The doors and windows are necessarily
closed, causing every breath of air we in
hale to have q peculiarly pungent musty
smell, so that I 60 to sleep feeling some
how that I'm under the influence Of ether
or chloroform. Yet, though the population
of nearly 10000 souls do this every day,
the mortality among the natives, as far as
Can be ascertained. is not greater by COM
parison than that of some of our cities.
The very paper on which am writing
this, though kept in the zinc lined box in
which the State Department sends out sup
plies, is so damp that pen and ink cannot be
used. Those that are in the habit of wetting
pencil to their lips would be cured by
coming to this climate.
Yet low fever prevails here all the time,
but little attention being paid to it by the
native population. Perhaps it is best that
the officials should studiously conceal the
real state of health, as the natives are Of
that peculiarly mercurial temperament that
once panic takes possession of them it
would be impossible to control the lower
CLASSES.
THE PRESS STILL MUZZLED.
1t is practically an easy matter to prevent
the people from learning of the disease be-
coming prevalent, because there is a censor
snip OF the press, as well as telegraphs and
cables, to limited extent, that would of
course prevent the fact becoming known
either at home or abroad. There is law in
force which subjects anyone who may pub
lIsh anything OF what may be considered Of
an iAcendiary character, to trial, not by
jury in the place of residence, but by court
martial at Rio de Janerio. There is also a
law of recent date which completely pre-
cludes the possibility OF anyone communis
eating by telegraph or cable any facts detri-
mental to the Government; no kilograms in
cipher being permitted at this time.
In addition to this scourge of yellow fever
and smallpox, they have here a disease
which in its effect is worse than either,
i. e., beri-beri pronounced as though it
were spelled bury-bury), the name being
imported from India, and possibly the dis
ease also, it being distinctly peculiar to
Brazil and India alone.
A TERRIBLE DISEASE.
Beri-beri may be briefly described as a
living death; the victim is at first afflicted
with swelling of the feet, accompanied by
a numbness and partial paralysis beginning
at the toes, and at the same time tickling,
crawling feeling of the skin, although the
affected parts are insensible to the touch.
In the progress of the disease the paralysis
dropsical swelling, rendering the lower
limbs entirely helpless; the flesh becomes of
a spongy nature, taking an impression like
piece of soft putty. The finger pressed
against the limb will leave an indentation
precisely the same as that in any pliable
material.
The course of the disease is as surely up
ward as the growth of well-watered plant
in good soil in q dollhouse, taking, in some
cases, months to reach the vital parts, when
death-a horrible, prolonged death, ensues
by slow strangulation, caused by the grad
ual paralysis of the respiratory muscles of
the thorax and diaphragm. Their action
becomes more and more feeble, and respira-
ton more and more difficult; but so slowly
that it sometimes takes the victim a week or
more to choke to death.
CURED BY EMIGRATION.
They have what is known as galloping
beri-beri, when the pale horse and rider
does his work in five or six days. The
doctors do not pretend to understand the
cause or the nature of the disease, which
they attribute in general terms to a break
ing down of the system; or, as our doctors
sometimes when they are not sure of case,
call it "nervous prostration." There is but
one cure for beri-beri, and that is to leave
the country. The fact is we'll established
that patients who do make a change of base
recover. Instances are related where pa
tients who have been carried aboard vessels |
so helpless that they were placed IN ham,
mocks were within few days after leaving
port able to walk about the deck. This es-
tablishes the fact that beri-ber1 hourishes at |
Para.
Notwithstanding these discouraging facts |
Para has existed for hundreds OF years, it |
being one of the earliest settlements of the |
Portuguese in South America. 1t is in |
many respects most interesting place. Its |
streets in the lower parts OF the city are
narrow, numerous and very crooked, but |
generally we'll paved with imported Belgian |
block.
AlPEEP AT THE CITY.
Street car lines extend throughout the |
labyrinth OF little streets. going and coming |
in all directions. They have both wide and |
narrow gauge tracks, which occupy almost |
al of the thoroughiares in places. In many
oi the streets, wagons cannot pass them; in |
fact, have not vet seen wagon, though |
carts drawn by small oxen and |
ponies are quite common; and 1 have no.
iced couple OF dilapidated old hacks skir-
mishIng around, containing some minor
official in their carriage of state.
The houses are small and generally quite |
picturesque, with their balconies. shades
and windows, queer looking Railways and
tile roofs. 1 have walked all over town,
without being able to find a chimney; in
fact there are nohearth stones in Para, and
i fire on the hearth is one of the family
educators they have sadly missed.
I've seen quite number of right pretty |
I III eves peenino throuph rho ebudae ar |