The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-09-04
ASlATIC CHOLERA.
The Terrible Plague as Viewed
from st. Petersburg.
HOW THE NEWS Is SUPPRESSED.
The Infected Regions OF the yolga-How the
People Live and Die and How They
Feed the Disease.

toa OF the cholera now hangs over Russia
and the reports of the horrors OF it's raw
nges along the lower Volga are brought
here daily. They are kept out OF the news
papers as far as possible, and it is not
known 70 just what extent the plague has
spread, but there is no doubt but that it is
rapidly marching up the yolgs and it can
not but desolate the famine-stricken prov
inccs. / FIRST heard of it four weeks ago
during stay that / made at Mini Nov
gorod. I WAS entertained there by Mr.
Zevecke, very wealthy ship owner. who
owns the largest line of steamboats, on the
Toiga river, and whose business is the
carrying of freight from Persia and the
Caspian provinces up and down this
Russian Mississippi During my stay
Mr.. Zevecke was in telegraphic COM
munieation with Astrakhan, and he told
me that the cholera had already mani
Tested itself there and it was feared
that it would march on into Russia. A
short time after this | visited Saratoff,
Simbrisk, Samara ana kazaD, all OF which
towns are now in the cholera regions, and
it was only few days after left Saratoff
that the cholera broke out there. There is
no doubt but that the whole OF the Volga
regions will be devastated by 1t, and in or
der to understand its dangers IL is neces-
sary 10 know the character of the country
and the life of the people
The NOlga is as wide as the Mississippi.
1t is $500 miles long and it has as great q
trade as any river in the world. II flows
through fiat country and the lower half
of it passes through an almost treelees re-
gion. Upon these great plains the hot sun
of the tropics is beating down now with re-
lentless vigor. There is absolutely no pro-
lection from 1t, and the women go about
with nothing but handkerchiefs on their
heads and children boil their brains under
the SUMS burning rays with no protection
whatsoever. The men wear heavy caps.
and the houses are so built that they
are like bake-ovens at this time of
the year At Kazan and Semara
saw hundreds upon hundreds OF half
naked men lying on the roadside and sleep
irg with this tropical sun beating down
upon them and with the smells of decaying
vegetable matter all about them. Saratof
has a sytem of water works, but most of
these Volga cities have no sanitary ar
engagements whatsoever and the village of
Russia which possesses q water closet Is
one of thousand. The peasants, among
whom the cholera IS the worst. have abso-
lutely no knowledge of the rules of health,
and their diet and habits would naturally
breed the cholera and cannot but increase
it. Their favorite soup is made of green
cabbages. and old men and babies eat this
of the chief articles whey you find peddled
everywhere and which is consumed in
large quantities is the green cucumber.
which is eaten raw, just as il comes from
the vine, or more often after it has become
wilted and stale from lying about under
the hot sun.
In the provinces just above Saratoff
great deal of the famine bread is still used.
] saw some of this stuff while l was Oh the
Volgs and il would be the ruin of any man
whose bowels were at all delicate. Its sur
face is of dirty gray, and when you break
1t open you find that its inside is of deep
brown. 1t is salty and sandy, aud il tastes
more like clay than bread. 1t looks as
though ii We're made of bran and husks,
and il is as gritty as the apples OF Sodom
There are thousands Of people who are
ga ting this bread today, and while l was on
the Volga found them ready to devour
anything. DIR. Hubbeil, the American Red
Cross society agent. was with me, and in
speaking of the corn which was spoiled in
crossing the water, he told the relief peo-
pie that il could be dried and used for the
cattle. They replied that they were drying
It and using II TO feed the peasants and
that the most of it would do very well.
The natural condition of these people Is
bad hey ond description, and was shown
today "Reminiscences of the cholera in the
shape of a photograph Of the interior of q
hut on the Volga Beside loom, in which
was the half-tnished cloth that the woman
had been weaving when she was taken
sick, lay q rude bench, and on this q young
mother Of thirty stone dead. Hanging
from the rafters In one OF these Russian
cradles was little baby, whose bald head
peeped out of the clothes in which she was
wrapped. and whose bright eyes, / was
told, twinkled as the picture was taken.
One Of the most offensive smells along
the Volga is that of putrid fish. Nearly
every other wharf has great crates of this
packed away, and you see peasants walk
ing about the streets peddling dried fish,
which they have upon strings and which
they carry about swung over their Shout
GERS. The most of these fish come from
Aetrakhan, which is at the mouth of the
Volga and in which is one of the greatest
fish markets In the world. Il is here that
the greater part of the csvlare of the
world is made. It comes from the roe of
the sturgeon, and millions of dollars
worth Of 1t are shipped from this point
every year. Millions more are made in
the dried fsh which are sent over Rus
eia, and the people at Astrakhan live on
little else than fish, The poorer of them
eat the refuse, and this has aggravated the
cholera there and the cases are rapidly in
creasing. The fish which are shipped
from Astrakhan are often not more than
half cured and they are in bad condition
when they are sold to the peasants
They are eaten half cooked and as little
care is taken TO keep them clean they form
about as indigestible an article of diet as
can be found. The better class bread used
by the peasants of Russia would ruin the
stomach of an ordinary man. and its rough
ness is such that it cannot be but injurious
TO patient who has tendency toward
cholera. 1t is as heavy as Boston brown
bread and it looks not unlike it. 1t is made
IN loaves Of twenty-one pounds each and
the average loaf OF bread eaten along the
VOlga is as big as a ten-months-old baby.
Living on bread, cabbage soup. cucum bers
and dried fish, with DOW and then bit of
cheap meat. the people have not enough
strengthening food 10 WARD off the cholera
Their systems are already run down by the
famine and the sun is willing the life out
OF them. They know nothing Of the use of
medicines and their home life is such that
IL is almost impossible to keep the cholera
from spreading.
can easily see how one cholera case
spreads the disease thru shout village.
The man who first gets the disease prob
ably belongs to large family. This fam
lily inha0its one of these little, hot, matched
huts and dozsn men, women and children
are huddled together within it. They sleep
side by side on one bed, which is usually
the top Of the stove, or lie sprswled out to-
gether upon the floor. They wear the
Same clothes day and night and if there
are cholera germs in any one of the gar
ments Of family these are bound to be |
communicated to the others. IL che choI- |
era is slow IN manifesting itself the patient |
may move around about the other people |
of the village. The work of the village is |
done In gangs and one man must come in !
contact with all the others. The result is |
that the disease must spread and the only
wonder is that it is not greater than il is. |
1t was at Saratof that the reports about |