The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1898-10-15


some portions of the country hay'
| been terrified. and they have tale
/ of yellow fever stuffed into thei
/ heads uutil the little things dream
ing, wake up in the night weepin;
and wailling and crying out .'w'
are all going to die of the yellow
| fever Indeed, somebody ap
pears to have studied up the histor,
of the great pestilence of 1853 ant
! robed the conditions of New Or
| cans in all its resurrected horrors
The contrast between the aetua
facts and the invented horrors
would be, as We have said, ludl
crous if not SO exasperating.
There is no excitement it thIs
of any decription, nobody il
thinking about yellow fever ol
j any other pestilence, except whef
some country lie of more thar
usual atrocity or grotosqueness
comes to light and is anathema.
tized as an Internal outrage.
| The retail business is excellent,
hundreds had to be turned away
from the theaters. last night be-
cause there was no room for them
and Canal, St. Charles, Carondelet
and Camp streets are as crowded
and rushing as in the busiest sea-
son. Only the wholesale districts
are dull, for the shipment of
goods is much hampered and pre-
vented by the fool quarantines.
There is a considerable number of
visitors here in our hotels and
many of our own people who have
! been away are returning.
There are some frightened peo-
pie in town unquestionably; but
they are people who live on the
extreme border line of morbid
terror and moral insanity; they
are people who will screech and
veil and fly in terror if somebody
says "Boo!" to them; who, if they
read or are told a ghost story
will live for weeks afterwards in
constant fear that a hob-goblin is
going to carry them off into some
lone graveyard.
We have never seen nor heard
of such senseless terror. as has
surged among the country people.
1t is disgraceful to humanity; it is
q red-hOt shame to the manhood
of Louisiana and Mississippi.
Unquestionably there are some
people dying here. But in q
population of three hundred
thousand souls somebody has got
to die every day in the year. But
the death rate has not risen above
the normal rate, and the city can
be regarded, aside from the usual
fall feyers, exceptionally healthy.
We hear of some talk of yellow fe-
yer; bnt it appears to kill nobody
and it is safe to say that large
proportion of the cases so far re,
ported here have not the remotest
...-.-.ss-rtiop to yellow fever, orit must
he thai. as We SAID once before, that
Yellow fever, following the course
, Of all other pestilential diseases
that have at one time or anotner
; yrouroed the earth, is fading out;
hos lost its virulence, and mus'
honceforth be classed among sucL
D diseases as bilious and malaria
faver, Such was the course O
the plague-the Black Death-o
the Middle Ages, and anclen
= tines If New Orleans has yellow
fever, then unquestionably yellow
fever has lost its malignity; bee!
sborn of its terrors, and there
no more reason to fear it or to &c
! / excited ay by its presence than ther
d i to 90 into spasms and howllng
= over the presence OF an eploehll
. of chills and fever.
e Bnt even if every case thatsh;
q been reported as yellow fever all
u =, every death that has occurred w
II II fbe undoubted result of yelloc
r fever. we should still be very Il
d. II from being scourged by a. pc
IA IA tjlential epidemic. Today
ID o,,isville. much smaller cl
u u than New Orleans, there are mo
re r deaths daily from typhoid tn
J. here are in New Orleans, yet n
ne NV IS excited or alarmed a
3y 49, Iii, ahout # Are ke
u VI tnckians braver than louisiana
bo m and Mississippians. Gu
ne Last fall the editor of the ota
was called to New York on bu
se ness right in the midst of the tn Il
"a "a prevailing So called scourge. !
~ ~ FOR reigned everywhere within
al rsd;ns Of FIVE hundred miles
en m Sew Orleans. In New York
We made careful inquiry and we fou
- that in proportion to its popt
H ton the death rate in New 4
1 was fullytwice or even three III
q as great as in New Orleans
: phoid diphtheria, small pox
s scarlet fever ragged in many p
Tons Of the city. Not a line in
s newspaper appeared about :,
Though the mortuary reports = I
, New Orleans were given ViSi
( and conspicuous publication;
Of the health situation OF
j, York nothing was heari IN
; York Tt was not discussed IN
7 hotels or the clubs or salo
3 The New Workers left such
i Ishness to be practieed oy
: , damphools of New Orleans.
8 , Aud precisely the same sta.
5 affairs with the same treatl
; } existed in Chicago. Yet eou
: merchants of Louisiana ana
d sissippi, because we have
% cases of alleged yellow fever,
n 4 I EzNrs