The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1897-10-23
YELLOW JACK.
lis Effect en- Business Ia the Gulf
States.

The following letter has been rereivcd by
dence from the superintendent OF its New
Orleans Office. Coming from one who Is on
the ground and In correspondence with vari-
Gus sections OF the South, il makes the infor
nation Of especial value Mt this time. particu-
larly i'm its bearing on the cotton and sugar
interests Of The country:
TEMPORARY PARALYSIS OF TRADE.
The Bradstreet Company,
New Orleans, Oct Is, 1891.
To tho superintendent:
We are constantly receiving inquiries ask.
ing; what effect will the yellow fever have
on this busin0ssf"
We have "a sickness here on the gulf coast
and Mt Mobile and Galveston. which, very
unfortunately, has been diagnosed as yellow
fever, and the entirs South has simply gone
crazy with fear of an imag mary evil spirit
which they apparently are expecting will
single out their particular locality 10 swoop
down upon.
In New Orleans, where .our population is
255,O0O 10 00O.t00 we have had 10 date: Total
number OF cases, 1885, total deaths to date
ST. cases recovered and discharged as cured
53l; now under treatment, 3l4. :.:. s.-.
beg TO call your attention particularly to
the fact that only III per cent of the total
number Of cases have died of these deaths
many have been those who were living in filth
and squalor. and were more dead than alive
when discovered.
The figures give you are official and speak
for themselves. The mortality has been 40
light that IL this is yellow fever. then II must
lose its terrors, for typhoid and scarlet fever,
which are prevailing in many Eastern and
Western citi es, have recorded n much larger
percentage OF m ortali;y. Whatever the dis
ease is, IL was imported The founding left
ON the doorstep has been noined yellow fevor.
Ii is now nineteen Years since wa have had
case of genuine yellow fever. The population
OF the South is greatly changed aud the new
generation has had resurrocted for them all
the strange. weird legends OF 1853, .s07 and
1873 The horrible tales OF the yellow dragon
were promptly reproduced by our enterpris-
ing press, and the average countryman who
has been reading these ehoul stories has
primed his flintlock. illed his old powder
horn. hammered his plough share back into n
two dyed sword TO fight commerce. tie IN en-.
gines. demolish freight cars and drive back
the United States mail rho effect upon com
canoe beside the effect of this chaotic confu.
sion of fears.
Every town has quarantined against each
other and against the world, and renders 4,
impenetrable to commerce the Everglades
OF Florida.
From July TO September this year our
merchants were doing % 10 50 per cent more
business than Mt the same period any yenr
since 1893 The outlook was never 80 promis.
ing.
Say 10 your Subscribers that our merchants
know what obligations they have incurred for
O'tober and November. but they do not know
whom they can collect outstanding accounts,
! nd they cannot realize on tho stock they
now have ON hand. Our banks are pursuing n
liberal policy 10 tide over this emergency,
whcn may be matter of thirty days longer.
We have had ideal weather for cotton and
sugar crops The negro has bccn "piching
cotton end hunting rfc coon by moonlight" \"
tut there has been mighty little of 10 shipped,
and present prices are s,ouniing n O.OO1. .0Ol
bale crop. You can almost hear the sugar
cane growing these nights" Grinding will
be general the latter part OF TINS month. The
crop promises very faitering results.
We are anticipating that frosts will O.
quict the fears of the germ hunters Quar-.
antine restrictions are being modified eau
tiously and soue Improvement Is noted in
won't let Jack FROST In.