The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-01-05
THE BUB0NIC PLAGUE.
characteristics of the Terrible Dis.
ease Now Prevailing i'm nina.
New York World.

NEW 1OIh WOTiu.
Recent dispatches from London say that
two cases of the bubonic plague nave de-
veloped there - the same disease which.
since 1894, has been ravaging certain parts
of China. This is only another reminder
TO us here in America that these eastern
epidemics only too frequently girdle the
earth before they have run their course, as
did la grippe, which first was heard from in
an alarming form i'm distant Russia, but
which soon reached over our shores with
the disastrous results which are still so
fresh in mind.
We are exposed on two sides to invasion
by the bubonic plague. which is nothing
more nor less than the black DEATH
which, in 1865. killed 100000 Englishmen and
produced the London horrors De Foe so
graphically describes. 1t NAV reach us
by the Golden Gate from China and IL NAV
come by any one of our Atlantic ports
should the disease really become rooted i'm
Europe. Already two cases Of it have oc-
Cured on one of the Pacific mail steamers
on the way from China to San Francisco.
Two Chinese stokers were stricken and
died of the disease shortly after the vessel
sailed. and both were buried at sea.
1t is said on good authority that the bu-
bonic plague has been more or less preva-
lent in certain parts of China ever since
the seventh century. when ii gained such
terrific Roadway that ii swept all Europe
and nearly depopulated Marseilles, TO say
nothing of the De Foe horrors 1t wrought in
London. The disease took pestilential form
in Canton about two years ago. There is "A
wide, open ditch about a portion of the
city into which all the refuse and exuvia
of the swarming population is emptied. Ii
is the placid Chinese theory that the tide
washes the fostering mass away. The tide
does nothing of the kind. and the filth re-
mains there in the blistering sun to the
depth of two or three feet, a breeding place
for myriads of rats and other foul verpin.
1t is a curious fact that I'm all violent
outbreaks of the bubonic plague rats
seemed first to be seized with II. and their
death in great numbers always preceded
by a few days corresponding ravages
among beings. The rats swarming out of
the eXtra-mural ditch about Canton and
dying by thousands was the first warning
the Cinnamon had that an epidemic of the
disease was upon them. They burned red
paper. tried to fool the gods by changing
the date OF the new year and died by the
thousand. convinced that they had taken
all the sanitary precautions within the
power OF man.
and the Malay peninsula. The Japanese,
with their modern learning and freedom
from the idiottc superstitions which affiict
the besotted Cinnamon, made & strong and
intelligent fight against the deadly invader.
and kept him comparatively at bay. But
the disease creDt into India. and among
certain groups of the natives there has
spread with frightful rapidity. A press dis
ratch from Bombay last week reported q
o., cases and 1,49i deaths up to
date. Europeans and such natives
as were able to get away were leav-
ing the city by thousands. The newspa-
pers were threatening martial law unless
the natives obeyed the sanitary regulations.
In India, as in China. the advent of the
plague was heralded by an epidemic amonE
a \ which uypra found dead nv the hun
dreds i'm and about the native dwellings,.
In some instances rats. evidently suffering