The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-08-19

over OH HIS DOuy, IuuS uOWn upOu bLO
. marble floor and back into the we'll
So this goes on, one pilgrim rapidly sue
, ceeding another day after day, and each
| moment the water of the we'll has been
further befouled by the washing OF ten
or dozen Mohammedans.
Whatever disease there was in the pool,
each pilgrim has drunk, has had washed
over his body. And the fanatics think
these waters are especially beneficial in
cooling fevers and healing all diseases
The drinking Of these waters is the
last and browning attack upon the
Health of the Pilgrim.
He has endured the fatigues of the long
journey from his distant home. His
system has been weakened by bad food
or no food at all, by bad water, by sleep
ing in foul atmosphere, by privation of
every SORT Then he drinks and washes
in the water of the Zemzem, and dies.
Indeed when he goes there to drink he
may already have the disease. So the
plague is set agoing, and some of the
streets of Mecca are filled with dead and
dying. And the caravans and the dusty
piles of pilgrims moving away are pur-
But this is not the worst. Those who
are not able to go to Zemzem ask the
pilgrims to bring them some of its
waters. And in tens of thousands of
TASKS and bottles these deadly waters
are carried away to be drunk in cities
and villages all over the Mohammedan
world. The pilgrim himself may escape,
but he bears bottled cholera with him,
and in some unhealthy village hundreds
of miles from Zemzem its poisonous
waters are set free to start new centre
of infection.
In former times the danger was not SO
great as in recent years. With increased
facilities for transportation, with the
shortening of the time in transit, the
disease has chance to spread more
| widely and to get farther from its place
| of origin before being discovered. 1t
| may travel undetected far down into
| India, or as far as France or Spain or
England, or even to America. And il
among the immigrants to America there
| is one with bottle of Zemzem, he may
not release his poison until after he, has
landed.
1t has been clearly shown that the chol-
era never arrives at Mecca in the form of
asplague. It comes in isolated cases. Even
if the Zemzem bottles were left out, there
is seldom time when some one is not
dying of pestilence in some part of the
Orient, and the pilgrims going to Mecca
may carry the disease, which, in <all
probability, came from there the year
or two years before. But if any quick
spreading disease domestic Mecca it leaves
there a,plague, slaughter in right.and left.
And if none comes Mecca's own foulness
seldom fails to generate one or more.
The most enlightened Mohammedans
are beginning to realize that
Something Must Be Done.
But even they hesitate, because of the
fanaticism of the masses. The masses
far from complaining of these pestilences,
looking upon them ..as acts of God for
the trial of Mohammedan virtue.
According to Mohammdan ideas, he
who dies on pilgrimage, like him who
dies in battle for the true faith, is caught
up to heaven of special glory. And as
for the slaughter of these pestilences in
the Christian world, this delights the
ignorant Mohammedans, who are thus
confirmed in their belief that the pestl-
lences are of Gods sending.
The Sultan and the other Mohammedan
leaders may regret the scattering OF pOiS-
on throughout, the world from the cen
tire of Mohammedan faith, but their in
fuence, though great, does not extend
to the changing OF religious belief. IN
would simply legislate themselves out of
Office And to suggest sanitation or any
other renovation in connection with the
Mohammedan holy of holes means radi-
cal change, to which the Mohammedan
world is no nearer educated than it was
a thousand years ago.
All sorts of plans have been suggested
by which something could be. done with
out touching Mohammedan fanatlclsm,
hut none of the plans is of account, be-
cause none gets at thereof of thesmatter.
Sanitary INSPECTION everywhere else but
Mecca is part of the battle, but only
small mart. For as long as the cholera
nurseryn remains untouched, the cholera
germs will escape the most intelligent
and assiduous vigilance.
This has been illustrated the present
summer, when all Europe was advised
to take the greatest precautions. Yet
cholera has been in almost every Euro
pean state this summer, in every one,
except possibly Switzerland. And in
several states, thus far, it has been very
near bursting into an epidemic-how
near the public will never know. How
ever cautious western people may be,
however we'll they may look to their wa
ter supplies, howevershigh and strong the
barriers they may erect. the sly cholera
will stink in and slay the unwary here
It may be that the civilization of
Europe of the present day may engage
in a crusade more practical than those
crusades of the middle ages to. recover
the holy sepulchre---a crusade under the
banner of hygiene to destroy the great
source of pestilence.
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