The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1895-09-27
THE ALTERNATE.

From the correspondence We re-
ceive from the other islands, 1t is
certain that it will be many day
before there will be peace in the
several communities, where indi-
yiduals have suffered from the ar
bitrary action of the local board OF
health. Men or women, quaran-
tined beyond the accepted five
days limit, by neighbors who have
lost their heads and inflicted upon
them an unnecessary, and even
cruel imprisonment for many days
more, are not going to be resigned"
or "forgiving" about it. A period
of hard feeling and recrimination
now follows.
1t is a pity that at the first news
of the outbreak of cholera, the peo-
pie of the other islands did not
send representatives here at once
TO examine and make report on the
situation. Had they done this,
there would have been united ac-
ton, and much annoyance avoided.
Each community attempted to run
itself, without reference to any
other community, and the "lead-
ing men" of each community ap-
pear to have assumed that
the Board of Health, of this city,
did not understand its business,
and the only safe rule was, leach
man for himself" We believe
that great allowances should be
made for the acts of the men
in these remote places, because
they felt very serious responsibility
and acted accordingly to their light.
But why did they not get little
more light?
While the citizens of Kauai were
rather frantic over the landing of
passengers from Honolulu, and the
people of Maui forcibly sent away
passengers fully disinfected, and
the people of Hilo corralled on
Cocoanut Island many passengers
completely disinfected, according
to the latest regulations of the Gov
ernment of the United States, here
in Honolulu, physicians, who had
Just been in the infected districts,
and in the cholera hospital would
simply change their clothes and
wash their hands, and visit families
and dine out with their friends and
the danger of contagion was not
even thought of. Our ladies adj
nittsd!y inferior in courage to the
Hilo men, received these medical
men ~ their tables without any
hesitation, while across two ocean
channels, men and women, in a
much lees dangerous" condition
were barricaded out of comfort and
conveniences.
1t j. extremely unfortunate that
the people of the other islands held
in contempt the cholera regu-
lations of the American peo-
pie, who, it is believed, have
a lively sense of the need of
protection against disease, and who
recently passed through cholera
season. Now and then, it is worth
willie to take something on trust,
even if it is the medical authority
of sixty-fve millions of keen wit
ted people. During the cholera
season of 1892 in the United States
the isolated communities did what
the people of the other islands
have just done. In number of
instances emigrant trains were
stopped by town committees, and
poor men, women and children
were cast out on the prairie with
out food or shelter. As the scare
decreased better methods pre-
vailed.
We in Honolulu do not put on
airs. Our community, like all
other communities acts, and will
act, like a dog with a tin can tied
to his tail whenever the occasion
arises. But in this cholera bust
ness we had lot of clever doctors
who did not lose their heads, and
have, so far, taken US through the
rapids with hardly a scratch on