The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-11-18

houses built on acclivities so nearly per | pendloular that they are reached by steps cut into the rock. Buildings of
 SIX or more stories, rising close above
 each other, shut out the sky, and being
 set back, allow no ventilation. In this
 pestiferous labyrinth the poorest class
 es are packed, as closely as the sardines
 that form their staple diet. As for san
 itation, as we know it, there is absolute ly none in this noisome quarter. All i waste matter, vegetable, animal and
 human, is carried off at all-only
 when heavy rains fall, from the cess
 pool in the courtyard of each house,
 down the sloping streets in open gutters.
 No water is ever laid on. and the peo-
 pie have to carry the little they use for
 household purposes from the public
 fountains. No wonder that this local
 ity is the seat of the bubonic plague,
 which seems impossible to stamp out!
 Its victims yet average forty or fifty a
 day, of whom tWo-thirds die To the
 terrible conditions of the place is add
 ed povertyso abject that the people go
 hungry from birth to death-and gene
 rally make a short trip of it. Because Of physical weakness, owing to insut-
 ficient nourishment, they fall an easy
 prey to the first disease that takes hold of them. Some say that the plague originated in the entire fish diet of the people; others. that it developed spon-
 taneously from the same conditions of life that produced the great epidemics of the middle ages. Meanwhile, quar-
 antined by a cordon of police, the oto1,A l.,, +l,a t,,fn tod ter, cut off from employment, are hourly growing hungrier and rendering
 themselves better subjects for disease. Doubtless the irregularity of the cli- mate contributes something to the un- healthiness of Oporto. There is often a difference of twelve degrees centi- grade between sun and sun. A sea-fog comes up the Douro every night at the turn of the tide, and at it's best the eli
 mate is damp and clilly. The plague made it's first appearance early in June, in Fonte Taurinestreet. down near the river. The first victim was a Spanish porter named Gregorjo Blanco. He was fifty years old, unmarried and very poor. He had long been in feeble health, and his neighbors were so used
 
 ana melancholy, after his days work. that they paid no attention when he re- turned one night sicker than usual. NeNt morning he was dead; and at his funeral, which, according to Portugese custom, occurred the same day. one of the coffin bearers was seized with a fit or shivering, which presently ran into raging fever, and in few hours he fol- lowed his friend Gregorjo Thus, with m thrty-six hours. nineteen others. who had had all slept in one crowded tenement, went by the same swift route 10 the Campo Santo. By this time peo- Die began to be alarmed. Dr, Ricardo Jorge Gan English physician in Oporto. nose name is properly Richard George), made a bacteriological analy- sis, and discovered bacillus of kitusato- yersin in the pus of suppuration. The Junta Consultiva de Saude of Lisbon unique institution of Portugal, whose business is to look after the public health-sat in solemn conclave. discuss ing quarantine regulations with a view to Keeping the plague out of the capi- tai; but nobody thought of fighting it in Oporto with sulphur fumes and car bolics acid. When it was given out that qL rantine was to be established up- wards of twenty thousand people fled from Oporto, fearing not so much the plague, as the scarcity of food sure to follow; and some of the refugees car ried the sdeadly bacillus along with them to other parts of the peninsula Factories and commercial establish ments were closed, and for three awful months the only activity in the city was among grave-diggers and dead-cart dri- vers. With the approach of cold wealth CT the plague seems to have spent itself i'll Oporto except in the poorest quar- ter, known as La Sc, where every house is a cess-pool and the dark and noisome alleys, reeking with the con- tamination of centuries, are veritable places of disease. Strict quar- antine is maintained over this section, in consequence of which as many people are now dying of starvation as from any other cause It is said that rats and feas carry the plague about, and that if any small animal is pricked with a needle, dipped in the blood of plague patient, it is immediately seized with the deadly chill and dies in convul- sons. I need not add that your cores pondent will give La Sc a wide berth. and that her hospital investigations in Portugal will be confined to the out side, from respectful distance. AL though a great deal of buster is made about quarantine, it is well-known fact that a few dollars, judiciously ex- pended, will enable the foreigner in ap- 1 parent health to break through its reg ulations anywhere in Europe.
 In spite of it's cankered heart, where leath turks like the worm in the bud | 0porto is beautiful city, it's newer | oortion--to which the traveller should | eonfine his explorations-being built | nearer to the principles of modern sci ! ence and, thanks to the English resi- lents, kept comparatively clean. Pub ic squares are as numerous as in our national capital, a score of them being 1 adorned with statues and fountains. The finest of these is the Praca de Sac ! 0vidio. high up on the hillside, sur 'ounded by handsome residences. It is 'haded gy magnificent oaks and faced )y a terrace, which affords wide sea- ward views. Next in popularity as a is the great Botanical Gar len, which, however, cannot compare II beauty with it's namesake ill Rio de fanero-the world-famed Jardin Bo- anioo, with it's avenue of royal palms. | n tfa better DprtiOn of OportO most nf