San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-08-09
ON THE WING NO. ).

people seem as serious as penitents
when some great evangelist has been
laundering their iniquities in their
ears and threatening them with the
death to come.
A quarantine is a queer thing, as ii
quarantines only good citizens and
not the bad. And yet all people be-
lieve in quarantine. Through the
very efficient city officials of Eagle
Pass, headed by our esteemed friend
Col. G.. r Prouty, the mayor, that
dreaded malady, small pox, has been
stamped out of Eagle Pass, so that
there is not a case on this side of the
river here now and has not been for
several weeks, and yet Piedras
Negras, or Porfir,o Diaz, quaran-
tines Eagle Pass as reciprocity
measure. The officials there will not
permit patients to be sent to a pest
house nor suffer them to be isolated.
You see they believe in small pox;
consider it an act of God, and act of
man to suppress 1T an attempt to
thwart Gods will. They regard the
disease a renovator of the system, and
the sooner the renovation comes the
better for the man. They regard 1t
as bound to come some time, and all
attempts to avoid it or stave it of, as
fighting against God How much
the crude human nature is response
BILE for this state of affairs is ques-
ton for this age to solve, and how
much Is the result of their civiliZa-
ton, another question to consider.
1t is amazing to see the quarantined
on both sides of the Rio Grande meet
late in the evening for the transaction
of business on the middle of the
bridge with two ropes be-
tween them, leaving a space of ten
feet between the parties as neutral
ground. Here lovers meet, husband
and wife with her children, business
men, gossips and idlers, to kiss, to
confer and chat across the cruel in
visible quarantine bar, that says,
thus far, but no farther. If this state
of affairs continues much longer
that bridge will become kind of eX-
change place, Rialto, but more es-
pecially "a bridge of sighs," as well
as one of size. 1t was but few
months ago that the hot cities turned
out in their gayest and gaudiest at
tire to shake hands over the border
line, but now those ropes seem like
prison bals, and the people of either
side, prisoners. The continuance of
this wall OF separation is a quien
sabe case, as quarantine forty days
doesn't mean forty days any longer.
Why down at Rio Grande City
quaran tine, forty days has been
in force six months or $50
days and the quarantine officials are
hale and hearty yet, no prospect of
exhaustion. One feature OF the quar-
an tine business seems odd. The
state quarantine officer not a doctor,
can 90 to the other side, and of course
as reciprocity works both ways, one
over there can come to this side,
without fumigation or changing his
clothes, while common mortal must
leave his clothing on the other side,
hat, and even his shoes. Again,
there seems to be no quarantine
against merchandise coming over
without question.
In politics of course all is quiet.
Mavericks delegation, ifnot for Hogg,
is decidedly Hoggish. In this year
of grace the great papers of the DEM
ocratic party seem to have failed to
discover the signs of the times as
clearly as the rural press.
In conversation with gentleman in
the state service, whose accent indi-
Gated him a son of old England and
who asserted his New York birth,
boasted that he would rather be con-
sidered an Englishman than a repub-
lican. We admitted his right of pre-
ference and approved of his sincerity,
but were silent as to his Intelligence.
Here in Eagle Pass q republican
mayor, Col. Prouty, is giving all par
ties the most effiient city govern
ment the city has yet had; in the
several states of our Union the repub-
lican states IN the way of financial
integrity, the test-gauge OF honesty
now, appear in conspicuous contrast
with democratic state, and the nation
under republican rule from 1860 to
1884, as compared with democratic
rule from 1874 to 1860 with Cleve-
lands four years added thereto, will
challenge the admiration of all ages,
as a party of reform and progress
with the democratic party resist
ing change, adhering to the past
and supported by the effete institu-
tions from the other side of the water.
We are not surprised at young men
of the south brought up under the
shadow OF an institution imposed on
them, fostered by the loves of their
fathers, feeling a sympathy for a
party that would have perpetuated
that institution here forever, and
made it alike lawful in the north as
we'll as in the south. Toombs had
boosted shat he would call his. slave
list in the shadow of Bunker hill
monument. and jeff. Davis while