New-York tribune., 1903-06-28
WHITE PLAGUE TICTIUS.
Their Life IN Tents Conditions
That Ian Them Lou.


lee Of prisonIike hospital; within each
tent on iron bedsteads twelve small white beds
made with hospital precision everywhere the reek
Of disinfectants. without. groups Of broken men
in gray cotton clothes and long blue army coats
men with palid faces and hunted look IN tneu
eyes. a patient. patheti droop to their mouths
hollow cough bursts from the chest OF "A sixteen
year-old lad with white cheeks The coughing re-
frain is caught up by a skinny old man who is
reading days ole paper spread across his
knees. Then chorus of barking coughs sweus
from the throats of half score Of blue army
coats rocking I'm piazza chairs. reclining in steam
er chairs or lounging about the corridors OF the
hospital Presently it dies away TO an isolated
hack here and there. Beyond the tents rises vast
gray building. barred at all the windows On
either side the East River aplaps against the green
lip of the bank. This is Blackwels Island and the
consumptive colony
For the first time in the history Of Manhattan
the consumptves among the city's charges are this
wear enjoying the benefits of the open air treat
ment. OF the four hundred and fifty persons suf-
fering from tuberculosis. one hundred and nifty VIII
be accommodated in the tent cottages when the five
or six ones are put up OF these two will De
given up to
The tents are about s. BY IS feet in dimensions
and e feet high. Each building sets on a solid
framework of wood and brick piers and is eighteen
inches above the ground. The lower half OF the
walls is of wood like the wall of a house. but me
upper half consists of a hinged frame that can De
propped up like awning Furthermore there l.
a frame for breakin. the wind keeping out the
rain. which works Up and down on pulley th7
idea being to provide the maximum OF ventlatlon
with the minimum of exposure In winter the tents
will be heated by means of steam pipes under the
floor
Bedticktng in blue and white stripes covers walls
roof and screens. 1T is three times as cheap as
canvas. and serves well" explains the Eouns
deputy superintendent.
Only the stronger cases take the open air treat
ment in the tents the weaker take what IS known
the fresh air treatment in the hospital here
everything is exquistely fresh and clean, and the
central architectural fact great hall 500 feet
Iong. which runs through the building from end 10
end with small. ce-like rooms. without doors for
the patients either side. Here 1000 cubic feet OF
air is allowed each patient, against the looo CUBIC
feet the ordinary person enjoys his house and the
500 cubic feet which the Tenement House law makes
obligatory In weather the air in the tents Is
from 10 degrees lower than in the hospital The
big windows Of the rooms and the halls are wide
open. one notices That Is obligatory" says the
superintendent I'VE insist the windows being
open all the time. to keep currents Of living.
pure air circulating through the building. but II
takes watching and scolding TO accomplish IL
These four hundred and fifty tuberculosis patients
come from the East Side and West Side. downtown
and uptown. Sixty per cent have no homes: thirty
five per cent are absolutely destitute Some have
not even the of friend to give when they
come to the island to notified in case of acci-
dent" and often when they do give a name IT
proves to be useless. One man said he had not
slept in a bed for five weeks before coming 10 the
island. About sixty cent are foreign born There
are comparatively few Hebrews, and only one or
in spite OF the fact that the death rate
from tuberculosis among negroes is double that
among whne people. No is taken who has not
been in the county year.
From forty to forty-1ve Is the average Of the
men patients which is considerably older than IN
the outside world where from thirty to thirty-fve
seems to be the danger period. Thirtytwo per cent
admit that consumption existed in the family. and
about fifty per cent call themselves hard drinkers
Among the one hundred women patients things
are somewhat different They average older than
the men come many Of them. from the lower strata
of sOcety-the lowest. indeed. to which a woman
faIl-although among them is large proportion
of domestic servants The disease develops rather
differently in the cases of the women. too They
give US 4 lot of trouble" the comment OF the
superintendent. After a little the men come 70
like the treatment-at all events, they take kindly 70
living In tents and cooperate heartily with in
getting the most good for themselves out Of IT. Few
harder to deal with less tractabIe and OBJ
man has 4' Learned to Keep himself hexibIe w6e
women. through genera tons OF inherited inSti1ct &
that is the secret Of it Woman the conservator
Yonder lad licking his lips over his bowl Of hot
soup IS Hebrew. He is only fifteen years Old
in bowling alley. That is. where he got con
SUMPTION Inc man mex II I5Ll Lj ~ 49, .e
his boyhood had associated with consumpttves-
Island but had been trying TO keep with his
work until at last his poor chest got so bad he
couldn't even climb the stairs up 70 the news
paper Offices Then he came 10 the island
map p5t meetiag with some accident he had to
give up his work and depend on odd jobs Little
ers were good him. as they are 10 many poor
waits and strays. and gave him a Job as door
@ free Gnc 3 nR nn sh aRd 6oad fo GO n9
BEFORE he Came his chair was occupied for few
days by a German. the proprietor Of a small drug
through the roof of which the lea aked every
here he contracted his disease But he would not
move. because the location was good for trade
He in the last stages Of consumption when
BIackweIrs island few days afterward he died
Lack of work brings many here The industrial
Broken down by long hours. thrown out OF WORK
by the introduction Of machinery or by some ac-
he can do is dish washing In restaurant or cheap
ooaGes f-o13 nsIf7rIen+ [t fon5 sd ifrya5
with the germs of tuberculosis fall into that
of ianftOrs assistant Ii is all dust and hard work
kitchen man is nearly as bad Not only are the
eralIv sleep in the kitchen. Even in respectable
boarding houses the men servants sleep in the
kitchen man who had been cook for forty
years in boarding houses said he had never seen
a cuspidore in a kitchen. One who had worked
had eight fellow workers die of consumption
maker in lodging house. sandwich man-these
among the chance occupations to which the
Subsistence and they are among the worst paid
and most unsanitary occupations ne could find A
number of recent additions TO the consumptive
colony BIackwelTs Island dggers In the
What wonder that the consumptfve. destitute
frieniless longer young. who has picked up
precarious livelihood in the damp cellars steamy
of a clean bed. three good meals day and three
iuncneons' decent clotnlhg Jhe services OF a bar
physician n much the mood the people
! Of Israe+. after wanderngs many and devious.
tered last into the Promised Land
TYPICAL FOSSILS.