The Honolulu republican. [volume] (Honolulu, T.H.) 1900-1902, 1901-02-10
THEY STIMULATED The VICTIMS.

in the reports OF the Territorial Auditor And II
the business of this city to be believed,
these same expenditures have had prominent place
in their inner communings economics during the
period which has interviewed since the plague
stamped out The average citizen did not watch
things very closely when the board OF health
getting in its deadly work The average citizen
busy standing at his front gate and telling the
members OF that body that there plague in
his house and that the occasion had arisen which
necessitated the destruction of his particular prop
erty
From his grapevine the average citizen gath
cred strength and sometimes he had to il all
prevent the panic stricken committees from taking
chance and burning his home Just suspicion
It was not unusual thing for residents Of this
city who happened to be abroad when the quaran-
tine was in force to feel very nervous about their
personal interests in the city, and in the of
one prominent attorney this caused him to return
post-haste from European tour. for fear that
through excess of zeal the committees which had
stampeded the Bubonic Board would demand the
vicarious sacrifice Of his property for the uncean
illness of a filthy Chinatown.
The people did not keep close watch the
strings of the public purse during this period and
the amounts which were expended then have ten
dency to induce insomnia now, and TO cause the
invention of large number of picturesque swear
Board.
II the citizens had been watchfu it is not likely
that such thorough tests of the various brands of
choice whisky and other kinds of liquor would have
been made in such expensive manner An ed
toral in the Advertiser of April 18th, 1900 speaks
right out in meeting. and although It has since been
discredited b. that paper still stands about the
hardest shock the Bubonic Board has received.
The official figures of the expenditures of the Blu
bonc Board obtainable from the Auditors
Office. and searcher after truth would have hard
time if he relied upon official for his supply
of facts So it necessary TO again consult the
Advertiser for an account of the proceedings of the
board when the various bills contracted by the board
not contracted by it, but any rate paid BY that
body. audited and approved. The Republican
is sorry to do this but under the circumstances and
especially the reports uncontradicted the
time, the presumption is that they were correct
According the figures given in the daily reports of
the sessions of the Bubonic Board during the month
of April, there thousands of dollars spent by
the board which could be spent in the ordinary
course of the operation of quarantine unless the
most common precautions were fagrantly disre-
garded.
There effective check placed upon the
spending of public money, how could something
like $1,000 worth of various kinds of whisky, gin
and other varieties of liquor be bought and charged
to the government and utilized in the of
II cases of plague? Fifteen hundred dollars will buy
about 400 gallons OF good ordinary whisky and per
haps greater quantity of gin while the beer ale
and porter such amount would purchase is
enough make the eyes of Francis Murphy fill with
tears and the prohibtionists within gates
fairly gnash their teeth with rage.
If the amount was spent on whisky. simple
mathematical calculation will show that each of
the unfortunates would have been treated" with
five and half gallons of corn-juice.
Maybe it takes that amount of stimulant to
cessfully real vrulent of snakebite but
for plague the best medical authorities say that a
less amount would accomplish the same purpose
AS the cases of plague were usually of very short
duration, the patients have died happy. for it
is mpossibility for any to drink even half
gallon day and be able to repeat 'Eny meeny
miny mo- without a slip, let alone dying as a good
Christian should.
But it is not TO be presumed that the physicians
who mad charge of the hospitals were criminals and
criminally ignorant but rather it is be presumed
that the patients filled with choice whisky
that they could die with the satisfied feeling that
st least they had all the fine nose-paint they could
consume The fact of the matter is that the whisky
purchased at various times by order and without
order by the Bubonic Board not for the patients
except perhaps a very small proportion of it,
NOW. II it was not Tor the patents IL must have
been for someone else, and could not be properly
charged TO plague expenses So The Republican
would like to know: why it bought?
Why it not used for the patients?
Why. if it not used by the patients it was
not turned over TO the government?
And lastly: IL it was not used by the patients
why in the name of common grand larceny was il
charged plague expense?
Then there is another matter which suggests itself
in connection with some of the many other curious
things noted concerning the approved bills of the
Metropolitan Meat Company, According TO the Ad-
yertiser. there several bills presented by this
company. and among them was statement for
something $4,000. Several of the items of this
bill were so remarkable that the paper commented
upon them. No in the world will blame com
pany for furnishing anything they have for sale to
any solvent customer. But from the appearance of
this voucher, the plague victims as wen as their
guards and others who were temporarily feeding at
the public trough made a success of their gas
tronomy, and those who laid down their lives might
have done so from overfeeding just as easily as
from the huhonc plague
In the first place. there were great quantities OF
turkey. besides all manner OF choice cuts of meats
of all descriptions Then there were succulent little