The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-01-09

The fact that we have the plague pres
ent in the city is apt to make people
lose their heads, and it Is no wonder
that they do after the awful experiences
which countries have felt in the past.
But with modern hygienic ideas and
appliances with the campaigns of
cleanliness that have been fought and
are being fought, the plague in a few
years time will only be regarded as the
DOGGY Man" of disease.
The smart of terrible disaster from
this disease is felt still. But can any
body point to a country that is even in
average sanitary condition where this
disease has run rampant. 1t is true that
in Bombay II has run terrible course,
but what is the sanitary condition of
the immense native quarter of Bonn
BAY Why our Chinatown is a bed of
roses compared to that. 1t is true that
it is sweeping away hundreds in For
mosa but that is nothing to be Won
dered at when one reads of the masses
Of squalid population crawling about its
pestiferous purlieus
It is very easy to go back and cite the
terrible ravages of plague in the past.
At Rome in A. D. so it is reported that
1000 people daily persisted in that city.
Probably that is a Renaissance of the
yellow journalism of that day. AS Nero
had burned a large portion of the city
to the ground 1S years before, he seems
to have failed from a hygienic point OF
view, though doubtless from a spect-
acular it was a success. In 1910 there
was a frightful visitation of it in
Northern Italy and again in 1889
in Florence to which we are indebted
for Baccaccio's pretty stories Again
there are accounts of frightful cpl
denies in all parts of Europe during
the $50 or more years following. In 1903
no less than 9O,57S died in London
alone. In 1856 plague was in introduced
by transport into Naples and 1000
people were carried off, so it is said,
but they kept no accurate death stalls
tics in those days, and one doubts the
historical numbers. How did they
know. 2r9y
London" chiefly quoted to the, present
day because Defoe, of Robinson rCrusoe
fame, wrote semi-romance' about it,
which has been quoted and requoted as
though it were a true account, which.
it is not, though it is a very life like
one. The accepted result of that plague
was any where from $4,000 to 10OO
T.
were carried, off by plague at Mar
settles, and the record runs up to Glib
lalter in 1904 and 1923, since when it
has been little heard of, save in the
filthy cities of Asia up to the present
time. The latter however show a terri
BILE record of DEATH if the statistics can
be believed, which they can't, but the
fact that the visitations were terrible,
can.
With all this historical data present
in mems minds il is no wonder that
there is a horrible dread of the plague,
and that ships give us the go-by and
that we take such stringent means TO
get rid of it. 1t must be remembered,
however, that the conditions of Euro
pean cities at the times cited above
was infinitely worse than that of our
Chinatown at the present, bad as that
is. In fact the latter was as a bouquet
of roses to the former If any one reads
accounts as recent as those of eighth
teenth century travellers about Madrid
and Lisbon, or remembers some of the
pictures Of Hoearth, he cannot wonder
at theplague in such places. There was
no drainage. The Stops and filth of
every house were empted into the
street. and passers-by often received a
bath That is why our ancestors had
plague
With us, it is different. We are at
tackled with the disease in our dirty
quarter. But we can conquer it by
cleaning our dirty quarter Those who
live away from the filthy shacks need
have no fear. The disease win not at
tack the cleanly and the careful living
unless they wilfully expose themselves
to it, There should be no panic, in Hoo
nolulu over the presence of the plague.
1t is unfortunate. We suffer from the
historical precedent of a filthy living
past, but by thorough cleansing we can
overcome our foe.