Evening star., 1901-12-09
THE BuBoNlc PLAeu {
DIR. ERNEST KING TELLS OF HIS En-
PERIENCEs IN HAWAII
When Honolulu Was Under Quaran-
tine and No ope allowed to Land
IL N
on Other Islands.

Dr. and Mrs. Ernest king have returned
TO this city after an absence of nearly
four years, most of which was spent in
the Hawaiian Islands. In speaking to
Star reporter today on~the bubonic plague,
which is reported to have broken out again
in Hawaii, DR.. King said:
When the plague visited Honolulu two
years ago 1 was located on the Island of
Kanai, where 1t is announced that two
cases have died after being sick only twen-
ty- four hours. During the first attack
kanai escaped the plague, but the disease
itself could hardly have caused more ex-
c1tement or led to more privations than
did the dread of its. coming from Homo
lulu-a hundred miles by water.
The island steamers afford abundant
communication with Honolulu, but they
run irregularly to meet the demands OF
their freight business. The only excep-
tfon is the steamer which lands the mail
at Lihue, Kanai on Wednesday mornings.
One week in December it failed to come
and a second and third day passed and no
steamer. Finally, one appeared off the
port and sent a small boat in to say that
Honolulu was in quarantine on account OF
the plague. The telephone, which there
takes the place of a daily paper, soon
| spread the news, and the greatest excite
ment prevailed.
"The managers of the sugar plantations,
with the physicians, met in conference and
declared StrlCC quarantine dSdlISI I1ou-
olulu. The plantation quarters were thor
| oughly inspected and cleaned where neces-
sary, and an abundance of whiteWash used.
The thousand or two of Japanese then due
for work on the plantations were examined
on arrival and kept in quarantine for two
weeks. A famine was averted by sending
to San Francisco for food stuffs, which
came by direct steamers.
No Landing Allowed.
Boats from Honolulu were not allowed
to land either passengers or freight. A
wad Of cotton saturated with formalin was
thrown into every mail bag, and these were
allowed to pass. The mail had to be hung
out on the line to get rid of the disinfec-.
tant before it could be read without smart
ing lungs and eyes. The attorney general
came up to attend court, but could not per-
suade the guard to let him ashore, and had
to return to Honolulu. After time the
disease was controlled, and the regulations
were less stringent, but 1t was nearly five
months before Honolulu was pronounced
clean.
II had one scare during the time that
gave me several anxious days. One morn
ing was summoned by telephone to Eleale
plantation, where found the manager and
several Of the lunas in a state of suppress
ed excitement. Some eight or ten dead
rats had been found in the rear of one of
the stables. AS the disease had been
spread in Honolulu by these rodents 1t was
surely something not to be overlooked.
Several of the dead animals were carefully
examined, and slides made from lungs,
spleen and the larger glands, and exam
ined under the microscope, but nothing
found resembling the plague bacillus. The
next day the engineer of the same planta-
tion had a temperature of 1045, and sew
eral tender, swollen glands in the groin.
One Chinaman and one Japanese died on
the same day without having been reported
as sick, and these cases, together with the
thought that something might have been
overlooked in the examination Of the rats,
made it an anxious time. However, it
turned out that the Japanese died of beri-
beri and the Chinaman Of tuberculosis.
The engineer had typhoid fever, which is
an ever-present disease in the islands,"