Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-09-04
rBr CABLE TO THE DISPATCH ]

rBT CABLE TO THE pIsPATcH.l
LONDON, Sept. 81 Copyright Mot ur
til this week has Europe realized the ful
measure of the awful calamity which hs
befallen the Old World in the cholera ep
demic Even now England is not muc
alarmed, although the pestilence is at he
very gates and has actually crossed the in
sufficient barriers at more than one point.
1t is far too early with the turning poin
of the evil, 1t is hoped, just passed, to max
up the fatal record. Already it is the stor,
of one of the great catsstrophes of the age
l have been examining the grim, daily
death roll of the past month, and the fgurel
at the bottom of the column, inadequate q!
they are, make an appalling total.
More than 10000 human beings in
Europe have already perished of the pesti
lence. That estimate, fear, is far too low.
1t is based almost solely upon the official
reports from the infected districts, and in
those reports there is grave reason for be-
lieving that in many cases they have fallen
far short Of the truth
Russians the Greatest Sufferers.
More than nine-tenths of the victims OF
the scourge have been Russians, and about
the details of its terrific work in that coun-
try we know almost nothing. The terrible
story behind that grim daily bulletin from
st. Petersburg announcing from $500 to
1000 deaths is not TO be told
Gradually the facts are transpiring about
the Introduction and spread of the disease
in Western Europe. Its track has been
pretty clearly defined now, and it is inter-
esting to trace. 1t has been said that Rus
sian emigrants, most of them bound to
America, have introduced the disease wher-
ever it has appeared west of the Cars
dominions. This is for the most part true,
but the immigrants have come from a dis
trict where the Russian authorities have de-
clared there is little or no cholera-namely,
Poland. The Russian Hebrews who took the
disease to Hamburg came from Poland,
80 did the emigrants who have fallen i'll
with it at dozen places in Austria Two
or three from the same unhappy and be-
nighted country have been stricken down
with the plague in England this week, but
from Poland itself we hear nothing. It is
more difficult to get news from there than
from Greenland or Central Africa By and
by there will come a frightful story of
pestilence and death among a destitute and
starving people.
dambure's Great Criminal Mistake,
In nearly all places where the disease has
been introduced except Hamburg 1t has
been promptly and efficiently combatted
Hamburg made criminal mistake which
already has cost many hundred lives, and
which has brought the worst disaster which
could have befallen the commercial inter-
ests of the city. Her authorities met the
crisis with inadequate measures and sought
to conceal as long as possible the presence
of the arch enemy. I visited Hamburg
early last week, at the moment when she
should have been making supreme effort
to avert the calami ty which threatened her.
Cholera had already gained a foothold
there, and from so to 75 persons very diving
daily OF the pestilence. In the harbor
quarter few beyond those directly concerned
knew that the disease had entered the city.
Inc town never appeared more attractive,
II Is fair and beautiful citv, almost yene-
tian in its wealth of water ways Its
streets are clean and well paved. and ONT
UGrdlv, the public regard for good sanitary
conditions seems fully up to the average of |
large towns The only thing to excite an |
preheIsion was the almost stagnant copdi. |
tion of some of the canals, which penetrate
even the heart of tht busipes, |
section. Great business houses facing
4 busy street in front abuting directly upon |
4 canal in the rear. 1t should be under |
stood that the harbor section of the free
port is separated from the rest of the city
oy wide canal Bridges cross this canal,
but they are always guarded by customs
othcers who exercise q strict supervision
over all who cross The entry of persons
md goods to the harbor' section is free.
The customs regulations do not come in
orce until the canal barrier is reached.
Contasion in the Water Supply.
, The harbor section comprises some of
The best docks in Europe, many great
warehouses for the storage of goods, and
he homes of dock laborers and similar peo-
PIE. 1t was in this section that the cholera
lrst appeared, and there it probably would
laVe been confined but for the great disas-
er OF the contamination of the clty's water
upply. The Poles who succumbed to the
hague two weeks ago were taken to bar
scks on branch of the Elbe, Just above
ne CITY, The appalling folly was there COM
lltIeo OF allowing the water, etc., which they
sou " outSI Ine stream without being |
Islnfected. The city's supply of water is
rawn from near this spot. Then followed
ne fatal policy OF concealment; and finally,
hen the pestilence had burst all bounds
he local authorities of Hamburg seem to
ave become completely demoralized. No
Glance whatever Is to be placed upon their
hcial reports of the spread of the disease
1ring the past week. They admit TO-DAY :
lat about 1000 persons have died of the
lague in the city, but nobody knows the
'rrect figures
received letter yesterday from a Ham,
1rg newspaper man in which he said that 6
i the returns were grossly inadequate and '
lcomplete, and that it will be a long time '
efore an approximately true record is t
aae up The apparent rate of mortality 7
hlch the published figures show, amount. Il
z to more than 80 per cent of the persons
tackled, is probably misleading. 1t grows d
t OF the tact that larger proportion of 4
e number OF actual deaths are reported v
an OF the number of new cases. e
Cholera in Its Very Worst Form. II
There is no denying that the disease is in n
most virulent form, but a 80 per cent n