The age-herald., 1898-10-22
THE MISSISSIPPI
 QUARANTINE
From the Washington Star.

study O1 the uueSlhoh anu As familiar with all of the local conditions in that part of the south, writes to the Star explanation of the yellow fever condi- tions in Mississippi. --e says that the con- ditions there render the strict quarantine regulations, necessary, and that they are not the result of superstition and barbara ism.
 "The true conditions" he says, "are as follows: Prior to 1878 local quarantines were rare in Mississippi In that year two of her fairest and most prosperous towns, where never a case of yellow fever had been seen by citizen or physician-Holly Springs and Grenada-threw wide open their doors to refugees from Memphis and New Or- leans, where the pest was raging, and the result was the slaughter of the flower of their population, though, to their credit be it ever spoken. not man who had opposed t.-e erecting of the barriers of quarantine lied from those cities, but remained to nurse the victims of their temerity, and died at their posts, including Colonel Kinloch 'F'al- coner. secretary of state; pr. Compton, superintendent of the lunatic asylum; Judge Walter, the leading member of the bar, and many other notables.
 Since then Mfssissippians have been cau- tious. and though the plague has several times appeared. it's mortality, as in this season, has been light, owing to the au- thorities in every town looking out for the safey of their own people and barring the gates by quarantine enforced by extra po- lice and trusty guards at every avenue or approach. At the present time the habitat of the distemper is chiefly unimportant vil- lages, some of them heretofore unknown by name to most well-informed citizens, while the towns that control fully 95 per cent. of the states trade and exports of cotton, lumber and other products, have, thanks to strict local quarantine, been entirely ex- empt, and have enjoyed unusual peace, quiet and health.
 Under ordinary circumstances there would have been little or no fever in the state this year, but the unusual amount Of travel incident to the war had tendency to make the people more careless than they would otherwise have been, and the state has been thronged by journeying soldiers. West Indian refugees, immigrants, etc.
 Under the aegis of local quarantine in Mississippi a condition of order prevails almost unparalleled elsewhere. Crime al- most ceases to exist, drunkenness is sternly repressed, vagrancy is put under a positive ban, stores are closed at an early hour. assemblies of all kinds are prohibited, per- sons are forbidden to be on the streets after p. m., guards are stationed at all roads entering the town, special officers are put on every train to examine the health cer. tificates' of all persons proposing to stop at the town they represent, and all is or- der, system and conducive of the pubic safety and welfare
 This. costs money, lots of it, for every man employed is paid, and we'll paid. but the towns cheerfully pay the cost of im- munity. The local quarantines in Missis- sippi will cost the taxpayers of the towns in the aggregate hundreds of thousands of dollars; but it is, locally disbursed and lo- cally expended, and no one grumbles. In addition to this, the state board has at it's disposal an appropriation of $5O,OO0, which will be expended for medical services and inspection.
 Now, word with regard to the value of these Quarantines from a mercenary point of view. To the towns of Mississip- pi. generally, interstate commerce amounts to nothing, while their wagon trade, in volving the handling of a million and a quarter bales of cotton and enormous quantities of other products, and the load ing of the wagons for return to the farms with merchandise, Is everything
 ''The town people may have little dread of yellow fever, smallpox or other plaques, but with the farmers it is differentj they have plenty of food of home production and will forego the want of coffee, tea and dry goods rather than risk contagion or in- lection.
 If a well authenticated report gets out that a single case of yellow fever has ap- peared in town it's streets and approach es are deserted. Not a farm wagon, not even farmer on horseback, will be seen within its limits, and fall trade, which represents the harvest Is absolutely lost for the season; hence, at the first alarm, and for the sake of trade, for the preser- vation of the local wagon-haul commerce, that means everything to them, the mer- chants are the most insistent upon the es- tablishment of strict quarantine, and, in fact, the farmers are shy of any unqparan- tined town if the yellow fever is reported in the state.
 "As to money, our banks were never bet ter supplied as to goods, the shelves and warehouses of our merchants were never better stocked; as to provisions nineteen out of twenty of our farmers could subsist well at home without visiting a mar ket.
 ''As to the state and national authorities, they are working in perfect harmony, and if national quarantine prevailed 1t would not have the effect to disturb single local carrier in the state. for so long as the in- stinct of self-preservation exists our peo- pie Will renee contagiOn out, even if 1t amounts to fencing themselves in, and no juries can be obtained in either state or federal courts that will not be in perfect sympathy with them.
 "As to the request of the state r7 7S,rd of health in regard to depopulating Jackson, the capital, it was well timed That city p full of wel-to-do people, who can afford to leave, and withdraw the burden of their care in the event of contagion from com munity that has 300 poor negroes to look after who cannot leave.
 "The local committee is under the drec- ton of Bishop Charles B. Galloway, Secre- tary of State J. l.. Power and other patri- otic citizens.
 "The story of house having been burn ed by terrified country people in the village of Philipp, in which a yellow fever patient had taken refuge, has been investigated, and it turns ont that dead tramp was found in the old house under circumstances suggesting pestilence and the alarmed peo- pie set fire to 1t and burned 1t down.
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