Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1900-03-29


grounds for hours and seem to camp
there. When your door opens they
are all ready for you, each eager to
engage your attention.
Natives are inveterate smokers.
Their pipes are OF various kinds,
chiefly of Turkish pattern, some elab-
.orate, others merely a small earthen
funnel, within which is fire and to-
bacco. A rag wrapped around the
small end is sucked in smoking. half
a dozen alternately using the same
pipe.
II a European in a Hindu's shop
touches one of a tray of eatables
not fried in grease he is said to have
contaminated the whole, and by the
law of India must pay for the entire
lot.
The COW is sacred to Hindus and is
sheltered in the home as one of the
family, which makes them very gentle
and free from fear of man.
Plague, Famine and Distress.
The gorgeous East of today certain
ly is not one of splendor and pomp,
but chiefly a land OF famine, distress
and groaning humanity.
Every one is amazed at the daily
practices of these people. who defy all
recognized laws of health, yet live and
increase in population 100000 per
year. One ceases to wonder at the
presence of disease, but marvels at
absence of extermipating epidemics.
Hindus object to vaccination, be-
cause they have idols before which
those infected with smallpox gather
and pray for cure. To these shrines
among the convalescent your native
guide unhesitatlngly leads and nearly
frightens you to death when he in
forms you where you are.
Natives OF wealth and influence, who
wear European clothes and speak
English fuently. insist there Is no bu-
bonic plague in India, and that 1t is
only an excuse for a conspiracy in
tended to kill off certain natives and
for confiscating the estates of those
whom the native inspectors willfully
poison, and for obtaining money.
They say the paltry salary that
plague inspectors receive Is not suf-
ficient to induce any one to undertake
such work among real plague suffer
ers, and they wax warm as they cite
cases supporting their view. Hun
dreds Of cases are known to have
l. IL
until the native or European inspector
was paid his bride. Then the house
was not sacked the business destroy
ed nor the members OF the family
sent to plague hospitals never to re-
turn.
The native populace's acquaintance
with such occurrences accounts for
the flight to the hills of many wealthy
native families. They fee in terror
not from the plague. but from the per-
.secution they expect. They would
willingly hide case OF plague in their
home. utterly fearless OF 1t and re-
CARELESS of the danger to others. A
Mohammedan would rather die in his
house than go to a hospital for treat
ment. To all measures of isolation,
disinfection and incubation Hindu
ISM also presents hostile front.
Europeans in India do not dread the
plague. II attacks chiefly the natives
and those Of very uncleanly habits.
Nearly all Europeans in India who
have died from 1t have been nurses
or those connected with its treatment.
Tourists and resident foreigners
throughout India mingle in the most
congested quarters of the native town
section unmindful Of any danger
from plague. However, life does not
seem TO have the same value in India
as in America. II a resident dies
they merely remark Too bad, poor
fellow" and continue their amuse-
ments and pleasures. During the
great mortality from plague at the
little town Of Poona, a mountain re-
sort, the racing continued daily, only
one or two races being postponed for
cause.
The banks Of all rivers and thous-
ands Of tanks and every little pool az
ford a constant panorama.
Here the dhobl. or washerman
brings his work. and the natives gath
er to battle and drink the mixture.
At Calcutta, Benares and other places,
thousands line the rivers banks for
miles.
Most public tanks and ponds are
covered with thick green scum. The
dhobl pushes the scum away and, as
wild, whips and beats the clothes