The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1897-09-18
DRUMMERS KICK.
Don't Like the Idea OF Being
Locked Up In q Coach.

The following protest is signed
by 4 number of gentlemen who are
very angry because they were made
to comply with the quarantine reg
ulations of this town. The Gazette
believes that the gentlemen are un-
Justly severe upon the officials OF
LAFAYETTE. 1t is unquestionably
true that during their detention they
we're not afforded the same
privileges accorded quarantlned
persons in places where the author
tiles have the means to provide
we'l-equipped camp.
The signers of this protest. as
well as all other travelling men, are
aware of the fact that this and all
adjacent towns have established
strict quarantine and it is the
height of folly for them to persist
in travelling from one place to the
other for the purpose Of doing
business. Though rather hard on
the esteemed gentlemen, their de-
tention here will be good lesson
to them. They were the duPes or
their own folly, and they have no
kick to make against any one.
In Justice to the mayor, we will
say that he has q great deal to con-
tend with and he is doing his best
TO discharge his arduous duties
fairly and impartiaHy. He is con-
,cededly a very humane gentleman
and if he did not accord better
treatment to the unfortunate
prisoners it is simply because he
could not do SO.
The communication reads as fol-
lows:
Lafayette, La, Sept. IS. 1897.
To the Lafayette Gazette:
We, the undersigned, hereby beg to pro-
test mos enphatcaliy at the treatment we
have received at the hands of the quarantine
officers in general and of the mayor OF La
fayette in particular. We lave now been
locked up in railroad coach for over
Twelve hours and have received no more
attention ut, the hands of the authorities
than would a carload of animals and not as
much as is ordinarily accorded to common
criminals. We are all holders of certificates
from the Boards of Health of neighboring
towns; one of us holds a certificate from
DR.. Mudd, president of the Board of Health
of Lafayette, for which he charged $1.oo.
One of the imprisoned comes direct from
Chicago, while another lives in New Iberia
and has not been in New Orleans or any
other infected district for over four months.
The rest of the party are travelling men who
have been here within week or ten days
and have not been anywhere near the sup
posed pest-ridden city. All of which could
easily have been ascertained by a careful
and intelligent investigation by any man OF
common sense and with little due regard
for the convenience and necessities of peo-
pie supposed to be gentlemen and away
from home. Parties were allowed to land
who came in the same car and from the
same points as did some of us. When after
reaching the quarantine Station on the
limits of the town yesterday, Sept. 1A and
finding that we were not wanted under any
circumstances, three of US begged to be
allowed to get out of the car aud to walk
back on the railroad track as far as the
mayor would request, we were fatty refused,
given no polite explanation or satisfactory
reason, but simply told that we ''roHM not
zrf onxt :" The whole matter appeared to
be the result of a woeful lack of any organ
lied system executive ability whichever
it may be. 1t is, however. very hard to be
treated as criminals, not given a mouthfui
of food and kept without any communica-
ton from the outside world, when little
more exertion the part of the mayor
could not have failed to make him ac-
uusinted with the true state of affairs and
could have saved a good deal of unnec-
essary suffering. Again we protest most
strenuously against what we consider an out
rage upon freemen in civilized commu-
~6;y, in the year of our Lord, 1897.
Very respectfully,
s L. HY. HAUToT,
L. p. CHAUDET,
a ADONIS LEBLANC,