Daily camera., 1898-07-30
CUBA'S BAD DISEASES.
Malaria and Smallpox Prevail at
All Seasons of the Year.
People Unable to Keep Clean and BE
Vaccinated Die by Tens of Thou
sands-The Rainy Season
Il the Worst

An old resident Of Havana lately said:
Havana has malarial fever and small
poX the year round, but they are not cpl
| demic, except in the rainy season. With
| in week after rains begin, the death
rate shows large increase, and the sit
uation grows worse as the season adj
vances, but few days are enough to
scatter disease. 1t is no wonder the
people believe the rain itself contains
deadly poison.
'For several months the weather has
been unusually dry, and, following pre-
cedent, the rains should be heavier than
is customary. When the war broke out
there were 100000 persons in Havana
who had not sufficient means of support
for one week. What must be their con-
dition now, after five weeks of the
blockade? AS rule, Cubans are not
provdent, while Spaniards are not open
handed; hence, the Spaniards had some
thing when the war began; the Cubans,
nothing.
"Weeks before the blockade was es-
tabl:shed, a large cigar firm commenced
to feed its workmen in an immense
kitchen. The tobacco supply had run
out, the factories were closed, and the
workmen were soon almost starving. l
do not believe the Spaniards refused to
sell food to the Cubans with the idea Of
starving them. In a time like this the
instinct of self-preservation predom-
mates. The man who has money will
live longer than the man who has none.
The latter will starve to death unless
disease hastens the end. Hunger soon
puts person in condition in which
pestilence can readily seize him.
Among the reconcentrados smallpox
has killed more than other diseases.
The people were unable to keep clean,
unable to be vaccinated, even if willing,
and they died by ten of thousands. In
their debilitated condition the disease
operated rapidly. Smallpox ought not
to be dangerous in Cuba. One large
manufacturer induced his 5000 en-
ployes to be vaccinated, and only one of
them died from smallpox.
"Malarial fever is now feared by the
Cubans more than yellow fever is. Vel.
low fever attacks a person only once,
and the Cubans generally have the dis
ease in mild form during childhood,
and are thenceforth immune; but ma
larial fever has no anti-toxin and is very
contagious, and a person recovering
from an attack that has left him weak
may be seized again and die.
"The Cuban insurgents, camping in
swamps, suffer severely from malarial
fever. It is estimated that IS per cent.
of the Spanish troops have had yellow
fever and are immune, as are all the
volunteers. Smallpox can be excluded
from the armies by vaccination, but ma
larial fever will kill or incapacitate
many thousands of Gen. Blanco's men.
when death from yellow fever oc-
ours in Havana the victim is buried with
the usual public funeral exercises, and
the house in which he died is occupied
as before without disinfection. Small
pox victims, however, are hurried away
to the graveyard and buried as soon as
possible.
During certain rainy seasons have
known hundreds of deaths per day to
occur from contagious diseases, and
with the present conditions the daily
death List may run into the thousands
before the middle of the summer.
"In Havana province there are nu-
nlerous bands of from 20 to so insur-
gents each. They are no longer able to
raid the suburbs as before, the defenses
having been strengthened, but they do
hang about to cut off stragglers. A
small body of Spanish soldiers who
should wander away from the town
would be pretty sure to be chopped to
pieces by Cuban machetes. With the
feet in front and the Cuban guerrillas
behind, Havana is practically besieged,
and the same may be said of the other
towns. Boston Globe.
Purchase Price of Manhattan Island.
The sum of 60 guilders (about S24)
was not big one to pay for so big an
island as Manhattan, 13 miles in length
from north to south and for the greater
part two miles broad. But it satisfied
1.-THE lord sachems of the Mar hathes,'
and Peter Minuit did not hand it over
in useless cash. He gave its "equiva-
lent" when in 1926 he arrived as the first
formally accredited director or COY
ernor of New Netherland, commissioned
by the Dutch West India company,
which owned and ruled and was trying
to people the province; and the nature
of his moneys may be guessed from a
list of the articles paid, seven years
later, for a large piece of land in the
Connecticut valley: Zone piece of duff
fels, 81 ellis long; six axes, six kettles,
Is knives, one sword blade, one shears
and Snme fovr.D Moraovar land uoc