Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-01-25
FIGHTING THEPLAGUE
Burning the Infected District in
Honolulu.
HOW THE DISEASE Was IMPORTED
Difficulties Under Which the Ha-
waiian Officials Labor.
CONGRESS SHOULD HELP
CONGRESS SHOULD HELP


HONOLULU, January IL, 1900.
I have just come from observing rather
unusual proceeding; that is, the deliberate
burning down of not inconsiderable sec
ton of this city. That work is now in
progress by direction of the board of health,
in order to check the progressive infection
of the bubonic or black plague, which found
a most deadly lodgment here just one
month ago. That lodgment WIS in the dis
trict known Chinatown, where twenty
one Of the twenty seven cases of plague
have occurred, all of them fatal, mostly
within forty-eight hours. The >section of
Chinatown now being given to the flames,
known as block No. 10, covers Just about
two acres, not including the four streets
inclosing it, Nunaun. Bericania, Smith and
Pauahi.
The wind being from the east northeast,
the fire is proceeding from the Pauahi lee
side eating its way slowly to wiudWard.
The conf1agration is kept well under con-
troll by~streamS of water from three steam
fire engines. The buildings to be burned
are nearly all very old wooden tenements
and shops. which ought long ago to have
been demolished. They have been occupied
by a dense swarm of 1000 Chinese and Jap
anese, with few native Hawaiians. These
AsiaticS were piled in at the rate of 1000
to the acre. in two-story, rotten shackS, in
the filthiest condition, with foul cesspools
blim.
And this is only one of the many blocks
composing chinatown proper, although
probably the one most densely nominated
The whole district. between Nunanu. the
harbor, the river and the low ground above
Beritania covers about sixty acres includ-
ing streets The population one month ago
was about 5000, nearly all Asatics. with
perhaps 1000 HawaiianS. On the first an
pearance of plague in this district the
whole section was quarantined, and armed
We
OF esress. This condition has existed for
one month. Less than le-fourth of the
cases have occurred outside. and all of
these We're more or less definitely traced to
infection from Chinatown.
How the Plague Was Imnorted.
How was the plague introduced here?
Doubtless by means of provisions imported
from the orient, large quantities of which
arrive by every steamer from Hong Kong
and Japan. There has evidently been too
little precaution in thorough fumigation of
all such freight before permitting it to be
distributed. The first two cases were clerks
IN Chinese stores. Sixteen Chinese in all
nave fallen victims, two japanese, seven
Hawiians. one Gilbert Islander and one
white. One of the Hawatians was a guard.
and two other were laborers employed in
e empty, cesspools in the district with an
these attacks is remarka BILE. What rene
dies have been employed L know not No
serum has been obtainable. Every case
has been cremated, greatly to the disturb
ance of the Chinese mind This Increased
their tendency to conceal cases of sickness;
but that has been rendered impossible by
rigid system of inspection twice a day, the
same that was SO successful in stamping
out the cholera, nearly five years ago.
1t now seems probable that at least two
thirds of Chinatown will have to be given
to the flames. being composed of old build
ngs crowded together and infested with
foulness of every kind. The following is
taken from an official report made fort
night since:
gested district in wretched sanitary con-
dition. We believe a detailed report of the
condition found, with the names of the
owners Of the property, would be revela-
ton to the community.
We are not surprised at the indignation
expressed when citizen finds he is living
in a community where fresh meat is ex-
posed for sale in shops within few feet of
which are cesspools reeking with filth and
Vermin, from which come clouds of flies;
where restaurants have cesspools with no
other covering than the kitchen floors Into
which cockroaches crowd by the thousands
after night of foraging over tables and
dishes; where poultry Is kept huddled for
weeks in small coopS one above the other;
where poi Is manufactured and sold in
shops sour with fermented slime; where
kitchens are built next to foul-smelling
privies, and SO arranged that ray of light
never enters them; where sinks are MAIN
tanned with long, leaking drains; where
ceSSpools and privy vaults are crowded to-
gether or combined and left unopened year
after year to saturate the ground with
NTH and germs; where cesspools are often
without ventilation of any kind excepting
the crevices of the floors above or perhaps
a rickety wooden vent ending within two
feet of a sleeping apartment window. which
is overcrowded at night with occupants,
and where the ground is often without
drainage, so that the seepage from the
surroundings accumuates and becomes
Stagnant.'
Early Inactivity of the Board of
Health.
That so foul g condition of things had not
been taken in hand and 7remedied before
the present deadly call for action came is
necessarily reflection upon the inactivity
of the board of health. That board has
been reinforced, and is now in a state of
strenuous efficiency. 1t appears to have
the peStilence we'll in hand, and is employ
ing the severest measures to check it. and,
If possible. to stamp it out. The new cases
are appearing rather less rapidly than they
did two weeks ago-at rate of less than
one a day. Besides the fire of today. there
have previously been burned on different
streets nearly as large an area of infected
stores and tenements, several of them in
@other parts of the city. A considerable
number besides have been condemned to be
burned as soon as they can be vacated by
the occupants.
Such vacating has been unavoidably re-
tarded by the necessity of providing some
place of habitation for such large numbers
who have been exposed to infection, and
must therefore be held in quarantine. Tenn
porary quarters had been found for a few
hundreds. Good barracks are now nearly
completed to accommodate two thousa no
people the coral shore, two-thirds of q
mile below the Kamehameha schools. The
location is isolated, a little over mile from
town. and reached by branch laid from
the Oahu railway. The sanitation has been
made very complete, with full supplies of
salt and fresh water. After due quarantin-
ing the great majority of these people will
dispense to various employments about the
city. For some the government will have
to make employment, and few may have
to be supported. During detention the gov
eminent has to feed them, and even clothe
many. whose belongings have gone up in
fame.
One of the most disturbing effects of this
calamity which has befallen our city is the
cutting off of our communications with the
other islands of the group, who are accus-
toned to obtain most of their supplies from
Honolulu, as well as to ship most of their
sugar through this port. 1t would be ter
ribiy fatal to have the sugar plantations
invaded by this pestiience. The whites are
few in the country. the Asiatics in great