Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-09-04

made known and it probably existed at the
time was there. Saratoff is in the south
eastern part of Russia, about 500 miles
south of Mini Novgorod and 700 or 800
miles from Moscow. 1t lies right on the
Volga and it is surrounded by rolling
country, tine hills of which rise up back Of
the city and on the top of which there
stands long line of great windmills, which
swing their arms against the hot blue sky.
There is deep ravine running through the
city, and dividing it in three parts and
coming to the city from the river it looks
both picturesque and beautiful 1t is a
very fair Russian town AMI is better built
and better looking than the average cities of
the Volga.
1t has about 1900 people, has q good
theater and a number of fine churches,
some of which belong to the Germans. 1t
is one of the centers of the German colonies
of Russia and you find that nearly every
other man in the town speaks German as
well as Russian, The buildings are as a
rule of stucco. The streets are paved with
cobble stones and the town is lighted with
gas 1t is, on the whole, much cleaner than
any of the other Volga cities that visited,
and it seelus strange that the cholera should
have first broken out here. understand
that the people are leaving in large num-
bers and those that remain are almost
frightened to death. The town has had con-
siderable experience with the cholera in the
past and nearly every great cholera cpl
demc of history has rested during its march
through Russia at Saratof
The Plague Comes From Asia Minor.
With the increased facilities for COM
munication diseases of this kind spread
more rapidly than ever before. The hot
bed of the cholera seems to be Asia Minor,
Persia and the regions along the Trans
Caspian Railroad. The great cholera cpl
demic of 1923 came from this region and ex-
tended into Asatic Russia. The cholera of
1880 first manifested itself in Persia, and it
got its start on the shores of the Caspian
Sea. 1t crept up the Volga just as this
cholera is doing, and it ravaged the Russian
Empire and during the following year
spread over Europe and wrapped its disease
spreading arms around England, France
and Germany. Thence it went into Spain
and Italy, and finally came over to
North America Nearly every cholera of
HISTORY has come from the trans Caspian re-
gion, and though Russia is doing all it
can to keep it down it is impossible to tell
whether she will succeed. Down at Astrak-
han the people are dying by the dozens
every week and there are, am told, in the
0elgnDOrnOOO Oh 1UU cases IN L0aL
city. 1t is through this town that all Paris
ian travellers must come, and a rigid quaran-
tine is enforced. The officials on the trans
Caspian road inspect all passengers and a
careful examination is being made at the
different cities.
At the present writing, however, the peo-
pie are suffering from the lack of doctors,
and there is practically no medical service
in connection with the Russian villages
During the typhus fever and the famine
the most OF the prescriptions were made by
private citizens, and the care of the sick
was largely by well-to-do people, who did
the work for charity's sake. Reports from
the cholera districts are SO unreliable that it
is impossible to tell just to how great an
extent it exists There are said to be q few
cases in the hospital at Moscow, but so far
none have manifested themselves here, and
the disease seems to be confined to the
Volga
Rotten Wood Filled With Disease.
The sanitary arrangements of Moscow and
st. Petersburg might be improved upon. 1t
is not that the streets and the houses are not
kept clean enough, for they are as well cared
for in this respect as those of any other
cities of the world The police have charge
of the sanitary arrangements and if a man
house clean or allows any nuisance to re-
main about his premises he is liable to find
himself in Jail, and if he is q storekeeper
his shop may be ordered shut for period
OF some months, as the authorities decide,
The great trouble is the lack of good water
works, and as to the sanitary building
of the houses neither ST. Petersburg nor
Moscow has the best of drainage, and this
city OF st. Petersburg, as cool as it often is
in the summer, is built upon a marsh, and
its night sir is filled with noxious vapors.
The authorities are always fixing the streets
and the Neviski Prospect has been torn up
during great part of my stay in Russia
About one-halt of this street is paved with
great round blocks of wood. These are
watered twice day and the moist air of the
sea makes the wood rot quickly, and this
rotten wood, packed full of the foul ele-
ments which it has gathered during years,
is now thrown up under the sun to dry. IT
is no wonder that fashionable st. Peters
burg moves almost bodily into the country
in the summer and that the city has q high
death rate.
Speaking of the cholera, picked up the
Berli'.er 7dgebldtt this morning and looked to
see what the German reports of the Russian
cholera were. found nothing in it, but on
the first page were two big black blotches
which efectually stamped the printed mat