The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-11-18
Yellow Fever Banfshed from a Place
That Had Been It's Home for
Hundreds of Years.
EVERY HOUSE D1s1NFEcrED
AND THE CITY MADE AS PROOF
AGAINST DISEASE AS POSSIBLE.
Was a Whited Sepulcher Until Col.
Whfteside Began His SAM
ftary Reform.


SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Nov. 3.-Three
hundred years of continuous yellow fever
III Santiago eliminated in the terrible cpl
demic of 1899. In December the last case
was cured, and to the everlasting credit of
the intelligence, vigor and fearlessness of
the United States army officers and sani-
tary inspectors year has passed without
single case.
The yellow fever epidemic at Santiago in
1899 resulted in death rate of 20 per cent.
Of all who contracted the disease, a greater
percentage of casualty than is shown by
Mauser or "Krag'' for those struck in bat
tie. To fortify against the disease and pre-
vent its entrance this past summer of 1900
was a winters work for Department
Colonel Whitside. of the Tenth Cavalry,
and his chief surgeon, Major Carr.
The result of two years of American rule
had been made TO make Santiago, TO all
outward appearances, as clean as any
American city. But ii has been whted
sepulchre. Clean asphalt streets have been
bordered by houses hundreds of years old,
with no sewerage. no drainage and no at
tempt at sanitation. Vast areas of build
ings have but a single small entrance,
through which passes all that goes in or
comes out. Horses are stabbed in the inner
courts. Houses have but one door, through
which pass servants, visitors, dogs, horses,
all those who call the house their home.
Through the same door, if it comes out at
all. passes the filth and dirt In the center
of the court the only yard Cuban house
has, is usually a we'll or cistern which
Ir;,,
a few yards away, filth percolates con-
stantly into the domestic water supply. Il
is the climax of unsanitary building by a
nation which seems to have made a spe-
cialty of that sort of work.
In one such block the sanitary inspector
found 126 people, white and colored, breath
ing the poisoned atmosphere of cesspools
and drinking drainage from a well in tn.
center The only ingress or egress was
through one narrow passage choked with
filth. Here lived, or existed, playing In
the dirt with pigs, dogs and chickens
naked children of both sexes, some of then,
ten or twelve years old, who had. prob
ably never ventured into the street outside.
To locate such places, clean the cesspool,
open drains and force the inmates TO clean
the houses was a task for sanitary force
last winter. medical officer of the army.
sanitary inspector, has made a house
toulouse inspection throughout the city.
Colonel Whiteside has had the co-opera-
ton OF city authorities, who have made IL
a misdemeanor. punishable with fine or inn
prisonment to resist this inspection, or 10
fail 20 carry out the resulting orders. When
poverty prevents compliance with orders to
clean up, the work is done at public ex-
pense, but, public or private, the work has
to be done.
last year has been disinfected three times.
Eghty-five miles of streets in Santiago
have been swept daily and $1,000 cubic
yards of sweepings have been hauled out
- a. L..s. r-1l
and eighty thousand cubic yards of gar
bage have been removed, in the destruc--
ton of which $1,000 gallons of crude pc
troleum have been used Four thousand
gallons of carbolic acid and eleven thou
sand pounds of chloride of lime have also
been employed I'm the work. No
street engineering work entailing excava-
ton has been permitted. A census of nom
immune persons was made every individual
liable to attack of fever being located, with
occupation and place of residence, and all
could have been hurried to the country
within ten hours had the fever appeared.
Under penalty Of fines for noncompliance,
boarding houses and hotels report all
rivals every twenty-four hours to the chief
surgeon. Under similar penalties for neg
lect, all cases of sickness are reported
within twenty-four hours by any keeper OF
a public house i'm which 1t may occur. or
by any physician having knowledge of it.
The result of this work is that there has
been no fever in the city since last De-
cember. Had fever come, I'm spite of all
that was done, everything was organized
to take care of it, The yellow fever hos
pital is located island of RAM, a full
mile from the city. 1t has its own wharf,
a launch and lights and telephone connec-
tons with the city.
There are now no soldiers stationed with
I'm the city. No troops in the stations that
encircle the city are allowed to enter ex-
cept between o'clock in the morning and
5 o'clock in the afternoon and then only
on business. The yellow fever bacillus
rever follows a man down the street and
attacks him in the sunlight. so that one
may go about a fever-infested city while
the sun shines with comparative impunity
The Punishment of yellow fever from this
city, it's favorable habitat for three or
four hundred years, has been achieved by
American cleanliness and energy inteli-
gently directed by the military authorities,
and its absence has been no freak or acct
cent