The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-04-18
B0MBAY'S SEVERE PLAGUE.
THE CONSEQUENCES OF OFFICIAL
CARELESSNESs AND NEGLECT.

It's early PRESENCE COnceAAeu-DSNpA
Not the Only Ill 1t Brings--A Dis
ease of Lower AnimaIs-A Native
ExpIanattOn-AwfuI Scenes in the
Pest-Stric<en City.
E. washburn Hopkins in the New York
Evening Post.
Bombay, March 1.-The plague began in
Bombay early in September. Its pres
ence in the city was sedulously concealed.
Neither police nor municipality thought
fit to let it be known that the Great Death
had entered the town. Yet only by the
spread Of this knowledge could means be
taken to prevent the growth of the disease.
No adequate means was taken. The
plague was allowed to run its course from
the beginning " grew, under official
reticence, as 1t fiourished in the gloom of
the tenements where it started. Dirt.
darkness, and concealment strengthened
it. The native inhabitants personally pro-
vided the first their houses the second,
the municipality the third.
But in September the disease progressed
slowly. No alarm was felt. A few more
deaths than usual were registered from
day to day. The plague took its own time,
roofing itself gradually but firmly, unim-
peded by natives or Europeans. The for
mer did not know what was killing them.
The latter suspected the truth, but re-
manned passive. No notice was issued to
the tourists, who were even then begin
ming to embark for their winters holiday;
and no care was taken to separate the
plague-patients from others. But further
| conceament shortly came impossible.
The natives grew anxious. They did mys-
teriously, awfully; and they died in in
creasing numbers. The news got abroad.
The reluctant municipality found it neces-
sary TO publish a statement. Towards
the end Of September the announcement
was formally made that the bubonic plague
was in the city. The natives began to
slip away. The daily trains leaving the
city became somewhat crowded. Little
was said. but the people feared. However,
there was as yet no general appearance of
terror.
The October tourists arrived as usual.
They made inquiries, but We're all met by
the smiling hotel-keepers with the same
answer: The Little Sickness? All, it is
not important. A few cases perhaps among
| the natives There is really no cause for
| apprehension" So the tourists filed the
| hotels and drove along the Espanade, Wis
| ting the baZaars, and taking their after
| Moons outing on the Queens road. Beside
| the Queens road the burning-ghats of thc
| Hindus We're more steadily occupied than
| before; and here and there in the bazaars
| shop or two would have the shutters
| closed. The visitors did not notice either
| fact. The papers were still very quiet about
| the matter Why frighten away trade?
| Keep still. That was the motto of the mu-
nicipality and of the papers.
1t was now the last week of October
mi
few Thousand made no appreciate differ
ence in the appearance OF a town of near
| ~ million. Fifteen deaths a day from
| plague were reported, twenty deaths, thir-
| ty deaths, Then happened the incident
in connection with the Queens statue
| This statue, the pride of Bombay, was
| found one morning smeared with tar and
decorated with a necklace, especially in
| sulting of native slippers. The perpetra-
| tors of the act have never been discovered,
/ bat the excitement produced was intense
| and lasting. From this time on the under
| lings of the native population, ignoring the
| deaths of the past, attributed those that
occurred and were still to occur to the
| fateful wrath Of the queen whom the ig-
norant regard as a divinity armed with
occult powers. Then finally, after weeks
of inaction, in face of a danger recognized
too late, came the demand for segregation.
The demand was made by the papers but
timidly. Would ii not be better to segre-
gate the plague-patients? asked the Anglo
Indian editors. This inquiry met with a
| howl of Indignation on the part of the ma
| tive papers and the native populace Segre-
| gate the sick, intrude on domestic privacy.
violate caste feeling? Infamous PROPOSAL
The proposal was dropped for the time or
only weakly renewed. So the plague in-
| creased.
But now the tourists had caught the
alarm and were off at once. The land
| lords could not keep them by any soft
persuasion. The Little Sickness got at
last its true name One spoke of it no
longer, but whispered of the mahimari,
| the Great Death. The popuace fear
ing more the suggestion of segrega ton
than the disease itself, departed in larger
bodies. Every outgoing train was fun.
| The coasung steamers carried sick and
hale alike to other seaport towns, return
ing, in the case of the infected third
class carriages on the trains, which no
one thought OF disinfecting, to pick up
new crowds, and, with the germs OF dis
| ease lodged in compartment and cabin,
to make sick those that were well, ana
carry the plague again to other ports
People began to die more rapidly, more
suddenly. A reign of terror set in For
now the credulous natives had conceived
a new idea--an idea absurd, fantastic, but
deeply implanted in the minds not only
| OF the lowest classes, but of the higher
stratum represented by the small dealers
and the domestic servants. This was that
the queen, in revenge for the insult Of
fered to her statue, had demanded the
livers Of 5000 inhabitants Of Bombay.
Who can say whence originated so silly a
tale. But TO these childish natives II was
no tale, and there was no foolishness in
it, 1t was dread reality. Hence, said
they. this strange demand for segrega
ton; hence the proposal that the sick
should be taken 10 the hospital. Who
that enters the hospital returns? The
sick are butchered to avenge the queen
So they fed. Whole families, men. wo-
men and children. taking their sick with
them. crowded TO the railway stations.
| Often the sick died upon the train: often
before the family reached the station
] Then they were left in the street
Meantime stricter measures Of relief had
| been taken. The natives were told per
emptorily that all their sick must be cas-
ried 10 the hospital. that segregation
would be enforced by the police. and by
the military II necessary. and that every
| home must suffer the visits OF the newly
! apDOinfed EriUiiaure cornrafffao Not