The Portland daily press., 1892-10-08
SOWING SEEDS OF DEATH.
What Reports Of Isolated Gases of
Cholera May Mean.
THEY MAY BREAK INTO A BLAZE
NEXT YEAR.

Europe's Danger as Pointed Out by the
London Times-Reports Show that the
Dread Disease is Sowing Its Seed in
Germany and Austria-With Next
Year, These Few Cases May Develope
Into an Epidemic.
LONDON, October THE Times,
whose carefully prepared letters on the
cholera epidemic are attracting great at
tention in Europe and praise from the
highest English and Continental physi-
clans, publishes and article today on the
prospects for this an next year. 1t says:
eve are already in October, and still the
epidemic marches steadily westward
despite elaborate precaution and sup
posed sanitary perfection. Probably the
general public does not gather a clear
idea of what is happening from a glance
at the kilograms announcing the occur
renee of few cases in Grodno and
Odessa. These do not sound more i'm
portant than the dispatches announcing
the same condition of affairs in Saratof
and Baku All are somewhere in Rus
sia, where cholera is an old story. Sim
ilarly the death of q few lighternen at
Spandau, in Germany, seems compare
tive trife, while tidings of cholera in a
small way from dozen places in Hol-
land and Belgium were only to be ex-
pected. Even the invasion of Buda-P PeSth
the capital Of Hungary, will not attract
much attention while its effects are con-
fined to their present moderate dimen-
sions. All the foregoing will make little
impression beside the news from Ham
burg, Paris, st. Petersburg and Central
and Southern Russia that the disease is
subsiding daily, yet
They Are of Ominous Import.
They 'mean that cholera is doing just
what it has always done formerly
creeping quietly onward, and sowing the
autumnal seeds in new ground over
wide area. which will burst forth luxu.
RANT with the advent of summer. 1t is
a most mis- chievous delusion that after
September nothing m ore is to be feared
for individual towns and districts which
have borne the brunt of a severe epidem-
ic. Winter generally means delivery, but
for the neighboring countries it means
only the beginning of trouble.
The recent cholera news from abroad
means that seed is being sOwn over
vast area in Central Europe ready for til e
death harvest in 1898. The news from
Grodno means that Western Russia,
right up to the Prussian border and be-
yond, is infected. The news from Odessa
means that the seed is sown in the Black
Sea Littoral and the Danubian provinces;
the news from Buda-Pesth means that
the isolation of Galicia was an utter fail
ure, and that Austria and Hungary are
involved, while the news from Span
dau means that the waterways from Ber-
lin to the River Oder are infected.
Scattered Cases of the Disease
in the Netherlands tell the same tale. If
precedent is of any value, all those dis
tricts and also Poland and France will
break out into blaze in 1898. Cholera
will knock at many doors and woe betide
if there is crack anywhere.
Continuing, the Times says: Berlin
has very dubious water and can hardly
hope to escape serious trouble. Cholera
is almost certain to be brought to Eng
land again this autumn, and is quite GER
tain to be brought here in 1898, probably
both from the Hast and West (meaning
the Baltic and Mediterranean. We may
be able to exclude the disease as we
have done since 1866. That is our best
chance, for once it obtains a footing we
| will not find ourselves in much better
| position than our neighbors. London, in
particular, has escaped more through
good luck than good management"