The Portland daily press., 1892-09-06
HOW CHOLERA COMES.
Germany's Filthy Cities Are an In
,yiting Field for the Pest.
HEALTH OFFICERS STONED BY THE
CROWDS In THE STREETS.

By-ways of which Prosperous SUBJECTS OF
the Emperor Know Nothing Where
the Simplest Precautions are Neglected
and the People Treat Those Sent to
Help Them as Enemies-Oficial Stu
piditysin Hamburg.
BERLIN, September 5.-The appearance
of the cholera in Berlin is regarded by
the Social Democrats and Radicals as
only mixed evil from their point of
view. The cholera fright has done much
good in directing general attention to the
pestilential wretchedness of the working
mems tenements in the eastern and north
ern districts. The sanitary conditions in
these districts are appalling-alleys flow
ing with stuff that should be in the sew
ers, cess pools where they pellute the air
for thousands, and buildings with hardly
a single sanitary improvement during the
last generation. After allowing for So
cialist exaggeration, there can be little
doubt that the increased strictness of
sanitary inspection in the last week has
Revealed State of Affairs
quite beyond the knowledge of prosper
Gus Berliners.
The precautions of the health officials
hardly affect the evils in the worst dis
tricts. All efforts at improvement are
handicapped, moreover, by the indolent
stubbornness of the tenement dodgers.
These people not only neglect to observe
the most superficial measures recon-
l.aC hxx% I, Nf1 nsoto Ir,% At,ar
also hamper investigation by all the
means in their power. Street riots in the
lower neighborhoods are so common that
the newspapers hardly motto them. Daily
health officials are stoned in the streets,
elected from houses, or beaten for trying
to enter apartments which tenants have
locked against them. The deplorable
obstinacy which has become a standing
menace to the whole city, is largely at
tributable to the Social Democrats. They
| regard the present situation as especially
favorable to the growth Of the gospel OF
revolution, and are papering walls and
pavements of the dirtiest districts with
placards which revile the health officials
for urging the people to take precautions
too expensive for the workingman's
pocket. One of the placards says: How
| can the proletariat of Berlin, living as
| they do from hand to mouth, obey the
official orders? How can they eat nour-
ishing food? How can they boil water?
Food and Fuel Cost Money.
/ The workingmen are already on the
verge of starvation and have not the
money to spare.
| The sensation of the last week has
| been the revelation of the criminal inef-
| ficiency of the Hamburg city govern
ment in its treatment of the plague. Re-
ports from the city nine or ten days ago
conveyed the information that the muni-
cipal authorities were acting with intelll-
gence and energy, and numerous details
of administration were cited in corrobor-
alton. These reports were inspired by
city officials When the Imperial health
| office in Berlin took charge of the chol-
era statistics and established communi-
cation with its own agents in the strick-
en- city, the culpability of the Hamburg
government was revealed. Prof. Koch
| has told the Emperor that cholera ap-
peared and was recognized in Hamburg
| two weeks before any warning was CIV
en-, and thus the city was kept in condi-
ton to infect the world. The effect OF
this policy in Germany, Prof. Koch said,
would be that hardly city or village IL
Germany would escape more or less se'
rious outbreak of the disease.
| In official circles the Emperoe is said
to have been so enraged by the reports
| of official incapacity in Hamburg that he
sent to the Senate stinging rescript,
which, when published, will cause shak-
ing up of the dry municipal bones of the
old free port. By implication the re-
script threatens the ancient privileges of
the city, and shows the intention of the
Central Government to incorporate the
free town and state of Hamburg in the
\ imperial municipal system as a means of
protection against the stupidity of local
| oficialdom.