El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-12-09

VIC hoNO lOuhA ~ AAh ROooASAS w Wv
tain this report.
A reporter called at DIR. vilas's of.
fice at two o'clock Wednesday.
"Could get the official report?' he
asked.
81 have been out of my office nearly
all day and guess the physicians must
have come here to report when I was
out. You can, however, get IL tomor-
row."
Another reporter met DIR. Villas on
the street and he said no report could
be had.
A reporter again called at Dr.Vilas's
Office Thursday afternoon at O'Clock
and asked for the official report for the
past two days.
DR.. Villas said:
"The physicians have been 30 busy
during the past two days that 1 sup
pose they haven't had time to report.
1 have also been out a good deal. I
guess you can get the reports tomor-
row or late this afternoon but can t say
positively
A reporter complained to DR..
Yandell that he could get no report
from the president of the board Of
health.
"That is no concern of mine and
immaterisl to me. You heard the
agreement of the board that all news
concerning the progress of the disease
was to be supplied to the newspapers
by the president of the board. 1 am
simply obeying instructions and can
not talk. While would like to assist
the reporters cannot do So"
A reporter called on G. r. More
head, one of the mos prominent men,
bers of the board of health, and re-
lAS 41 49, 4 - Al
ed In getting at the facts which the
members of the board had pledged
themselves to supply.
81 have seen none of the members OF
the board since the last meeting" said
Mr.. Morehead, "snd 1 know nothing
about the reasons why this report has
not been given out, although it may
be possible that the physicians and
others got together and concluded not
to permit the publication of the report.
In my opinion IL would be better for
the town II the newspapers would re-
frain from saying anything about con-
tsgious diseases"
All this showed US that We must
depend on our own efforts If we wanted
to get at the facts. However, although
we had positive knowledge of six
cases, and pretty sure knowledge of
several others, at the time of going to
press Wednesday night, we waited for
the promised official report, and fail
ing to get it, we accepted the explana-
tion assigned by Dr.. Villas, and printed
simply the following note in Wednes-
days HERALD, thinking that we would
be able to print the complete report
yesterday (Thursday):
SAT O'Clock this afternoon the city
had made no report to DR..
Villas, president Of the board of
health."
In the face of this knowledge of ours
of the existence of q dozen new cases,
the Times yesterday morning printed
the following totally erroneous state
by dictation from it's
rulers or from customary Ignorance We
leave our readers to decide:
GAS far as could be learned there
were no cases of smallpox yesterday,
but one suspicious looking case was
promptly quarantined. Several wild
rumors we're af1oat on the streets, but
upon careful inquiry none of these re-
mors could be verified. From last ac-
counts the patients at the city hospital
are doing we'll. and there have been no
recent developments to-cause uneasi-
ness or indicate that the disease Is
spreading"
Yesterday we made determined
effort to find out exactly how many
new cases had really been reported by
those engaged in the house to house
CANVASS. Our report only extended
up to yesterday morning, but it oover-
ed sixteen new cases that had not be-
fore been reported in the HERALD.
The report printed yesterday after
noon gave in detail the location of
these sixteen cases of which we pos
itively knew. The same afternoon the
Graphic printed the following state
ment:
Notwithstanding rumors to the
contrary, the smallpox situation is not
any worse, according to the statement
OF DR.. Villas, county physician, who is
paying close attention to the disease.
He returned at o'clock from the pest
house and reports six patients there,
all doing we'll. He has not
had any official report from
Drs. Yandell or Race, but Is of the
opinion that there are now elk cases
under quarantine in the city. DR.,
Yandell's Investigation has not I'M
earthed more than four cases, says DR..
Villas, who expresses himself as being
surprised that the situation Is no
worse, after having listened to the
many rumors afloat before the rigid in
vestigation was instit uted."
The rigid Investigation" referred
to had in fact "unearthed' at least
twelve cases during that time instead
OF four. Was DR.. Villas simply misin-
formed, or -?
We have gone thus into detail simply
to show that while q determined effort
Ia being made, from totally mistaken
idea, on the part of the city authori-