Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1892-09-15
THE CITY OF DEATH.
Fearful Condition OF Affairs In Plague
Stricken Hamburg.

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The thriving, prosperous city Of Ham
burg has paid fearful penalty for its
reckless neglect OF ordinary sanitary
precautions and its violation OF all laws
Of health when the terrible pest Of
cholera was right at It's gates. Dis
patches In the daily press give a vivid
and graphic picture OF the condition Of
the plague-stricken city. It's usual
gayety Is turned to mourning. Its
Palatial houses are empty and its streets
are filled with collins and hearses. It's
vast commerce Is at q standstill. It's
wharves are lined with idle vessels. It's
hotels are empty. It's schools, theaters,
opera houses and concert hall are
closed. The hospitals are overcrowded.
The undertakers are taxed TO their ut
most to bury the dead. Under this
overhanging cloud the people are natur-
ally depressed. Those who could do so
have fed elsewhere. Those who re ain
wait and wonder whose turn IL will be
next, and meanwhile the poor are suf-
fertng from combination of miserles,
In addition to their own poverty. And
all this came upon the devoted city in
less than month, for IL was Aug. I8
that the first case was reported. In the
brief period of twenty-five days proba-
bly, over 5000 persons had fallen victims
to the disease. The official returns of
the Board OF Health up to Monday re-
ported 6,124 cases and 2,676 deaths, but
on the came day the director of one of
the cemeteries stated he had buried
4,O32 cholera victims In that period, and
this was but one cemetery.
All this suffering and death clearly
are the outcome Of criminal neglect.
The first case brought to the attention
OF the medical inspector of the Board of
Health was on Aug. Is, but he made no
report upon 1t until five days later.
Meanwhile nothing was done to ward
of the ravages Of the pestilence already
at work in the city. No effort was
made to stop the expectation OF immi-
grants to other countries who were suf-
fering with the disease. Hamburg
freely admitted the disease, and as
freely sent it broadcast to Paris,
London and New York. No
precautions of any kind were taken un-
I'll 1T was too late and 1t had spread from
the low river sections Of the city to the
new and residence quarter. For week
or two 1T was confined to the lower
classes who live in the suburbs Of
Hamm and Hammersbrook and in
Spitaler, Stein, and other streets along
The Elbe, reeking with decaying filth,
garbage, and cholera a-producing ma
terias, and adding their stenches to that
from the poisonous waters Of the river,
daily made more so by the refuse from
the idle vessels. Then the disease
made its way into the better parts OF
the city, as might have been expected,
Tor no effort was made to clean up and
disinfect. The impure water,
which Is utterly unfit for drinking, helped
20 spread the plague. 1t was terrible
present which Russia sent to Hamburg
lud the world never will cease to won-
ier at the complacency with which Ham
burg accepted 1t.
But Hamburg is now paying the PEN
ilty which always followa tha viaiatian
)f sanitary laws In time of danger. II
rosts do not set in soon the mortality
ist must swell to frightful proportions.
is business already is destroyed for
he present. 1t is a city of suffering
Ind death instead of the city of gayety |
md commercial enterprise it was four |
weeks ago. 1t stands as conspicuous |
warming to all other cities. It's lesson |
TO clean up, to do 1t at once and |
thoroughly, and then to keep clean. |
Remove the filth. Purify the water.
Burn the garbage. Make the streets
md alleys and beck yards clean. De-
troy the cholera-producing material.
That Is the lesson of Hamburg, whose
holera victims are now quarantined in
he waters Of New York Bay and whose
est ships are threatening our own
ortS