The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-09-20

7
brought some of them up to Quebec ana
others to Montreal it was discovered,
with unutterable horror, that some OF
them were infected with the disease.
Inc nrst cases OF cholera occurred in
| clearinghouse in Montreal, two hun
| dred miles away, within thirty hours
after leaving Crosse Isle. Not single
mousse along the way was touched, with
/ the following exceptions: a man picked
| up mattress thrown overheard from the
| Noyageur, and he and his wife died of the
disease; another man fishing on the river
| was asked TO bury one OF the dead. He
and his wife and nephew died. An In
! dian who performed a like Office died with
i've OF his companions.
SCATTERING THE SEEDS,
From Montreal the immigrants were
scattered by the Emigrant Society, and
! the seeds were disseminated through the
land. Over four thousand persons died
| IN Montreal, and Kingston, Toronto and
Niagara all became affected. Quebec lost
nearly five thousand souls. Detroit suf-
! tered, and SO did other cities along the
| great lakes, and then the cholera germs
| found their way TO Fort Dearborn and
| carried away many of the United States
/ troops stationed there. out of one thou
! sand men over two hundred were ad-
United TO the hospitals within seven or
] eight days.
] ~ MUM AZ a Oil 11Otl41d Vi
! ships. The dead numbered thousands.
! IN New York city the disease first APP
| peared on the oath Of June, 1882. The
city was in a filthy condition, quarantine
was farce, and old cholera had CHASTITY
/ and a jolly time. The upper end OF Staten
| Island, used as burying ground, became
populous city of the dead-so populous
that the living inhabitants revolted. In
| this city alone the mortality, in what was
| known here as the cholera year, was
! placed at over thirty-five hundred. The
| disease spread northwardly by the Hud-
! son River and southwardly by Ches-
| apeake Bay. and played havoc in Albany,
in Baltimore and Philadelphia and St.
! Louis. From Albany, where the Fourth
| of July was celebrated by the toIling of
| bells Tor the dead, the plague was carried
west over the Erie Canal
An Indian at Oneida Castle, a few miles
west Of Utica, was hired by the Captain
| OF a passing canal boat to bury a man who
died on board of cholera. He got other
Indians to help him, and five were buried
IN consequence.
HARD ON THE wRECKERs.
The cholera was still scourging New
| York in October Of the same year, when
| the brig Amelia set sail from New York
for New Orleans with los passengers on
| board. She was wrecked on Folly Island.
ten miles from Charleston, S. c., and soon
| the disease was prevalent among the in
! habltauts OF the island. 1t chiefly hit those
employed about the wreck and the wreck
ers in charge of the vessel lost six of their
number.
Whether it was the coming of cooler
weather. or because the disease had spent
its natural force, it seemed to die away in
the country, although for the next two
years there were sporadic cases in vari-
Gus sections. 1t was taken to Cuba in
| n irNrr nd y,
yana and Matanzas, where it is said to
/ nave destroyed one-tenth or the pOpula-
| ton. Both OF these cities We're crowded
and filthy, and everything favored the
spread OF the disease when once its seeds
were sown there. From Cuba it nat
urally gravitated west to the coast of the
| Gulf OF Mexico, and many places in
both America and Mexico were suffer-
ers. Thence it followed up the Missis-
| Slppl and Ohio Rivers as far as to the
Pennsylvania borders.
! Quebec was a second time visited by
| the Scourge in 1884. 1t was the same
business all over again, an emigrant ves-
sci from France or England bringing it,
! The voyage was one of panic and terror
Many passengers died on the way Once
more 1t spread through Canada and New
| York State, and as Cuba had returned the
present of New York to some of the
southern States there were cases Of chol-
era in 1885 and 1886, here and there, but
nothing like all epidemic.
A WELCOME REST.
The disease finally died out in this coun-
| try, and there was a rest for ten years.
| But in 1916 the dread word went ont that
the Eastern Hemisphere was once more
under the heel of the monster, and that it
was marching over the old path toward
! the Occident. 1t reached England in Oc-
tober, 1913, at Sunderland, the very town
IN which 1t hrst made its appearance in
that country. During this year two in
| fected veSsels-left Havre for America, one
| bound for New York the other for New
| Orleans. Both were heavily loaded with
| German immigrants.
! The ship New York had been sixteen
! days out when the cholera broke out, and
there were fourteen deaths on board. She
! was instantly quarantined on her arrival
| and the passengers most closely guarded,
| The epidemic ran through the quarantine
! grounds like wild fire, and carried off
many OF the infected ones, but SO strict
a guard was kept over them that no one
got away, and joyful health officers noted
with much satisfaction that their labors
were not in vain. Not a single case of
| infection left Staten Island. 1t was a
great and decisive victory for quarantine.
| 1t silenced the voices, or certainly ought
| to have done so, of those who caVilled at
| that great precaution which we all now
| know to be SO priceless and so etiicacious
| when honestly carried out.
TOO RosPITABLE.
New Orleans was more liberal with the
Swanton, the other infected ship, She re-
ceived the sick passengers with open
arms and sent them to the Charity Hos
pital. She established no quarantine
against ship or crew, but let them go at
! will throughout all parts of the city This
llberallty cost her $500 of her inhabi-
! tants, for that number died of cholera be-
fore July OF the following year.
! But this did not represent the whole
cost OF l1berality by a good deal, for, in
/ few days. the germs of disease had been
carried up the river to Memphis; in the
| following spring 1t was carried to ST.
! Louis and Cincinnati, and was spread
| along the whole Mississippi Valley, and
in october it reached the Sacramento
! Valley by means of overland emigration
and San Francisco by the United States
! steamer \ ortherner from Panama
The filthy Chinese quarter of San Fran
! cisco suffered most severely, and there is
| little doubt that if the plague were to
| break out in New York the pestiferous
dens OF Mott street would prove most
successful breeding places for it.
GERMS HELD IN STORE.
But if Quarantine taught New Workers
| an agreeable lesson in 1913 she taught
them a very unpleasant one in the follow
! ing spring. The monster had been
scotched, not killed. There had been suf-
ticient quarantine but not sufficient dis
infection. There were germs of the dis
ease among the goods in the public stores
on Staten Island, and when opportunity
came they burst into life and bore the dis
ease up to the city of New York. A more
dreadful epidemic broke out there than
had ever been known before. The whole
city was dominated by the terror in