The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-04-11
a VOICE FROM KEY WEST.
Raised Against Marine Hospital
vi Service.

Raised Against Marine Hospital
III Service.
Key West, Fla April 3.-Editor Morning
News: As an old resident of Savannah 1
am. of course. interested In all that per-
tains to her welfare ana advancement.
have read with much interest the commu-
nicatlon of II. p. Smart and later OF the
protest sent into Council against the sur
render of quarantine matters into the
hands of the general government Your
editorial of the LIST inst. Is to the point
and your argument unanswerable For
proof of what might happen and probably
would, let me cite the case OF this city, In
the summer of last year. The city was
crowded, vacant houses there were none;
the streets full of people, soldiers and
sailors; stores doing all the business they
could take care OF; everybody pleased
with the outlook; strangers looking up in
vestments and a boom on that bid fair
20 last for an indefinite time SIMPSONS
fleet, or a larger portion OF II, In port:
numbers of the ships needed repairs, and
the naval engineering department was
running a night and day force; labor was
"NN PAM anu OOhAlK FORWARD
to a pleasant and prosperous season.
without any apparent cause for the CITY
authorities were looking well after ala san
itary matters, and the weather being nor
mai, the dengue fever made It's appear
ance. While 1t may be classed as a very
close relative TO Yellow Jack, no one who
has had the latter will make any mistake
as to which he Is suffering from. Be-
fore the dengue became fairly prevalent
"a
stationed here, within a few days il was
reported to Washington that yellow fever
was here and would no doubt become epi-
demic The result was that orders were
issued for the IMMEDIATE departure of the
troops and all vessels OF war not absolute
~ required at this station. Within forty
eight hours the harbor that had been filed
with vessels was deserted, except for the
presence OF couple Of tugs and some
coal barges- sailors, soldiers, and visit
ors all gone. and the place looked as II IL
had been visited by the plague. on the
mainland quarantine was had against IL
ana any one going north had to undergo
ten days detention at Egmont Key be-
fore being allowed to go further north
Not death occurred that could In am,
way be attributed to yellow lack nearly
everybody had the fever but In a tauy
days were at their regular business agaIn
Thousands of dollars were lost to the gov
eminent and to business men NV tbls
senseless scare about yellow fe
yer. That there was no raasor,
for II Is evidenced by the fact that MOI a
single person died from the prsvatIipg
FEVER and nearly every one had IL eitbar
IN severe or mild FORM The pbvsicIan
reporting II to Washington probably never
saw case of genuine yellow fever IN bis
life, and probably wanted, as dld noan,,
others, to get home or out OF this warm Ia
ltude and for fear that a simon pure cas-.
might occur, thought II best 10 be ON the
safe side and make his report as he ala
by placing quarantine matters undar az
exclusive control of the marine hosnitaI
service you Will be placing yourself n tha
same position that Key West occupiad a.
the early summer of last year. The GOV
eminent allows no Interference win a..
plans or orders. What IL says goes ne 81
fcers may be, those at Savannah nrobahI,,
are, thoroughly competent, but chansa,
occur, and you may be placed In the saTn,,
fix as this poor city was last year 10 ,o,,
the loss would run into the millions before
rs evil results were counteracted. I write
from thorough personal knowledge os
what happened here last year. the evil
effects of which viii last for years a. 10
shown by the Governor of the state re-
questing the Governor Of Texas not 10 in.
cude this place in the list of towns 10 ha
quarantined against. II is from no desire
to eee my name attached to any printed
matter that ! write, but only because I
foresee trouble and loss in the future II
you once give up your quarantine station
to the exclusive control OF the marine hos
pital service. T. l.. Kinsey.