Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-06-08
MICROBES IN WAR.
Would Bulgarians Infect Their Enc
mics With Plague Germsp
From the Brooklyn Eagle

From the Brooklyn Eagle.
Although certain orientals are a pretty
bad lot, and are known in dispatches Of
old. not as Bulgarian people, but Bull
garian atrocities, we doubt if they have
the means, the scientific knowledge, the
forethought or the cowardice to cultivate
plague bacilli and infect the cities of Eu-
rope whose officials are inimical to the
revolution. Revengeful, brutal and fanati
cal these fellows may be- yet the courage
they have shown in fight is the courage
of the barbarian-a brute courage, not the
malignity of the sneak. If plague does
appear in the zone of Bulgarian activity it
need not be of necessity attributed to the
revolutionistS: 1t can safely be ascribed to
the people who die with 1t, and who take
1t because they do not live wholesomely
and do not wash. Plague. like cholera and
other Zymotic diseases, has its origin in
filth, and the cleaner the safer. We have
heard little of the ravageS of the great
contagious since cities introduced sewers
and citizens became addicted to laundries
and bath tubs became usual appurtenances
of homes hospitals and hotels. The terror
that spread through the country when it
was reported that smallpox cholera or any
other disease of communicable character
had appeared in one of the centerS of pop
ulation. is now SO slight that nobody loses
sleep because of it. If the world is no
happier than 1t used to be it is not because
it is not safer.
Devices for killing have greatly multi
piled within the last dozen years. We have
harder hitting guns, longer reaching rifles
smokeless powder, explosive bullets, shells
of deep penetration. bombs filled with chem
icals of terrific energy, and other bombs
charged with lethal vapors, boats that
come up under warships and plant tor
pedoes that will tear the ships to pieces,
and it cannot be claimed for some of these
inventions that they encourage fair and
open fighting The submarine boat skulks
like a microbe; the smokeess cartridge
Kills and does not mark the place from
which it was fired; the lyddite shell suffo-
Gates more surely than the stink pots of
the Chinese pirates; yet of all these con-
traptions none stand in fear except the
soldiers and sailors who are required to
face the cruel conditions of open war.
Fighting with baclli is the fighting of
sneak because he attacks not soldiers,
but peaceful citizens, the old, the children
and the women: he reduces populations
and paralyzes industries; he throws thou
sands upon charity; he causes suffering
through illness. War tolerates only such
destruction as is necessary to effect its
purpose. The war of civilized nations is
never Waged against the home stayers and
the helpless. During our war of the rebel
lion 1t was reported here in the north that
an attempt had been made to introduce
yellow fever in the metropolis. The means
were to be quite simple: A southerner
was to walk into the Fifth Avenue Hotel
carrying quantity of infected bedding
and he was to take off the clean sheets
and pillow cases in various bedrooms and
put on dirty ones instead. People would
sleep on the unclean linen, catch the fever
and die. 1t is so usual for strangers to
take possession Of our hotels and make up
the beds that this story had wide credence
We know today that any one can sleep in
the bed Of a yellow fever patient and wear
his clothing and be exposed to not the
slightest risk. 1t is the mosquito that
carries yellow fever-not the clothing.