Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-10-23
Results in the Establishment of Shot
gun Quarantines.
WIDESPREAD DISASTER TO BUSINESS
Picturesque Description Of a Fever
Stricken Town.
DRAWING AN ARMED GORDON



Whether the fever prevailing in New Or
leans is genuine yellow jack or not, peo-
pie die from it. That fact appears to be
settled. Arguing the nature of a dis
case while the patient renders up his spirit
is not uncommon in the medical profession
1t has happened before and Will happen
again. Ii is. of course. some satisfaction
to the relatives to have the ailment prop
erly named, but the deceased is unable to
come back and testify to his appreciation.
The New Orleans fever appears to have
pretty nearly all of the symptoms of yell
low fever in a mild form. There is the
high temperate re. the quick decay, the yell
low exldations from the skin. the unmis-
taxable understandable smell of the sickness.
and all of the rest of it. An object lesson
IS always the most potent kind of lesson,
and. being confronted with the names of
people who have gone into the great be-
yond. Eortherners will keep away from
New Orleans until after frost. That is the
sensible thing to do This is proper place.
Perhaps. to remark that it is some distance
from New Orleans to Nashville, and Gov
ernor Tanner would be perfectly safe in the
capital of TenneSsee-safe, that is, from all
but haunting memories
Tha worst thing about yellow fever cpl
demic, strange to say. is not the epidemic,
hut the fear that the epidemic exciteS- TINS
fear results in wholesale quarantine, which
is only another name for wholesale paraly-
sis of business. Thousands of people are
thrown out of work and millions of dollars
90 TO waste Not infrcquently wealthy men
are PlUperized. Families are separated for
months. Promissory notes fall due and are
rot collected. Suits at law go by default.
Merchandise stales upon the shelves. Per
ishable goods rot in transit. Freight cars
stand filled. but motionless, upon the side
tracks. Steamers swing idly at their moor
ingS.
Only Passenger Trains.
The only sign of traffic is furnished by
the passenger trains which bear the mails.
The companies are under contract with the
government and letters and newspapers
must go through. The cars behind the
81 orcins engines. however. are empty. No
faces Look from the windows No curious
countrym-n gather at the little stations
Void and ghoStike, the train sweeps
through the still lard.
He who has seen little town of Louisi-
ara Mississippi under the blight of the
epidemic never forGets it. Not a man, wO-
man Of child is the streets. The yellow
sun glares down upon the sandy thorough
fare, but the only shadow there is the
trembling shadow of the trees that line the
sidewalks. The stores are open, as a mat
ter Of form. but one enters or departs
lonesome dog wanders along, but. meet
ing with no friendly pat or threatening
stone. sinks away Occasonaly-not of
ten-a buggy with a small hardy horse be-
tween its shafts whirls down the street 1t
contains one of the towns physicians hur-
rylns ID tile bedside of patient. The sta
ton agent who meets the train is woebe-
gone. In his face is the knowledge of a
great sorrow and a great dread. He may
be the next. he tells himself. That though
greets him when he wakes and closes his
eyes for the nights hot, tossing sleep. So
many new cases. 50 many Deaths he calls
cut 10 the postal clerk VINO losses him the
mail sack, ard the train speeds on Now
nf rhn
broken by the telling of a church bell
counting with slow strokes the age of the
dead.child or old man. Night and morn
Ing The chant of the requiem mass rises
from the little wooden church BIack-robed
priests and sisters Of charity fit from mouse
To house. They, al least, may be depended
upon W here death is they are always
only they, the physicians and the under
laker are busy. The red earth of many
fresh mounds dots the little green grave
YARD on the hill With stern. patient
blessed frost falls, browning the grass and
rsddeninS the berries upon the haw trees.
The land awakes then and counts its dead.
sentineIs in the Road.
me most picturesque and most damaging
feature OF the epidemic is the shotgun
quarantine" so-cdlled because the shotgun
Is its enforcement. Most Frequently the
shotEuh quarantine is not a matter of
law II is the result of Individual dread
THOSE who enforce it are farmers and dwell
er5 III towns too small to be incorporat ted
news comes that the yellow death has in
vaded New Orleans. Next DAVIS paners
confirm the intelligence. Somewhere he
low them a man sickens and dies 1t NAV
De ch0lera morbus. but to all purposes it
Is yellow fever. Then the patrol is out
On every country road the sentinel with his
Innsket walks up and down. He haIts all
xeilleies ana loot passengers who come
from the SOUTH They are turned back
No explanations deEials will serve
The nortnward journey ends right there.
sometimes the wayfarer refuses to obey
orders. Then the earthly journey ends
The slayer is justified by the community.
That is all he cares for
The shotgun quarantine" is divided into
TWO watches of twelve hours each. The
roads are guarded night and day Camp is
established in some field near by and al
ways near the south end of the little town.
II a town be near. The sentinel seeks the
shade of a tree by the roadside if the day
be not. but in the moonlight of the nights
he stands squarely in the middle of the
road Nothing can escape him. He Is paid
by his town or his neighbors at the rate of
- a day. There are always many unem-
ployed young men in the south glad of the
opportunity to earn much with so little
exertion- They are hot-headed young men.
filled with an idea of their importance as
Quarantine guards That makes them the
more effective.
Terrible Condition.
Men toiling northward on foot or in veh,
cles and stricken with the fever have been
turned back, and many times have died
in roadside bitches far from succor. The
bodies rotted where they lay, for no man
would touch them. Sometimes these dead
persons had been men of wealth and in
fuence IN the states interior, endeavoring
10 make their way home again. That made
no difference The selfshness of the shot
gun quarantine is the most supremacy ter
rible selfishness in the world.
~ mi ie vail boz
mercial cost is as heavy as in the terror
times of the past Northern Louisiana is
Guaranteed against southern Louisiana and
Mississippi Northern Mississippi is quar-
antined against southern Mississippi and
louisiana No business IS transacted. Few
boats are running. No man goes from the
upper parts of these states to their lower
cities. no matter how Imperative his needs.
He could not get back before late in the
autumn. Science cannot reason men out
or this blind fear. 1t Is useless to tell them
that besides spinal meningitis the dread
full swamp fever of the SOUTH yellow
jack is an infant They draw an armed
Gordon that Is murderous from end to end.
Their sovereign preventive is buckshot The