The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-12-13
Fire of No Avail.

Fire Is a favorito agent Of purlncation employed by the white man in the Orient -one, too, that Is used with ruthless hand, especially during the visitations Of the cholera and the plague-and has serv- ed to intensity the hatred with which, in spite Of all that is said to the contrary, the foreigner is regarded by the Asiatic. Convinced that the dirty conditions Of the native dwellings was responsible Tor much of the spread of the disease, the torch has been freely aplied to them. But it has proved of no use. For experience has shown, among other places, recently at Hongkong, that the inhabitants of the houses which had been destroyed by the health authorities had carried into their newly constructed abodes the Infection or the plague by means of the insects har- bored in their persons and in their clothes Fleas, in fact, are pronounced responsi- ble for the latest outbreak of the plague in native quarters that had been care fully disinfected and pronounced wholly free from contagion.
 This shows that ciothes-in the case of the Orient-are almost as disastrous in the spread of disease as in water. Some natives who invariably wear the cleanest raiment will never wash, while others who perform numerous daily ablu- ttons insist on resuming and wearing S~AANN~~NS~ from view, until they are infested with vermin and drop to pieces from old age In the end the result is the same, and unfortunately the white man in the East finds himself obliged by his sense of pro- priety to insist upon the use of clothes, his prejudIces on the score of decency manifestly predominanting sanitary con- alterations.
 Forced to Wear Clothes.
 Wherever the white man has made his appearance in the East he has endeavored to secure the enactment of ordinances forcing the natives to wear clothes. In the Siamese capital. at Singapore, in oth- CT cities of the Orient, even the children that in their bronze-like nudity consti- tuted such a picturesque feature of the public thoroughfares, have been obliged by stern law to garb themselves de cently," much to their dismay and amaze ment, being wholly unable to comprehend that they had been guilty of an impro- priety. In fact, it was long before they understood, and at Bangkok especially the youngsters, when the clothes laws were first enacted. seemed to believe that the statutory loin cloth could be worn around the neck, or turban fashion, or hanging gracefully down the back-in any way, in- deed. except in the manner demanded by our Western notions of decency.
 Nowhere, however, has this question of clothes worked more disastrously than in South Africa. where the decline of the Kaffir population is ascribed according tC the recently issued reports based upon the testimony of officers, missionaries, and traders of experience dwelling among the natives to the wearing of clothes. whic is likewise declared to be responsible fol the prevalence of a number of diseases previously unknown among the blacks The latter, fin his naked state. would of ten bathe. But when clothed he ceased to bathe. never strips. indeed. until the last shred of his garments drops off oi it's own accord
 In his wild state rain and damp scarce. ly caused him even discomfort But the clothed Kafflr seldom possesses g change" On reaching a hut wet through, he crouches close to the fire and. so, after few days or months learns by sad experience of those strange mala' dies. from which the white man suffers rheumatism and pulmonary affections, es pecially consumption.