Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1904-11-03


comes the disturbing news that the
plague is raging there more fiercely
than at any moment since its ap-
! pearance seven years ago and that
the British government has resigned
itself TO allowing the fell disease to
run its course unchecked. Although
more than 100000 people have per-
ished Of the prague in the Deccan
! since its outbreak, and the whole of
midas trade and industry have been
/ glavely affected by its ravages. the
exports from Bombay, for instance,
having fallen off to the extent of
some 80 per cent, yet the English au-
thorities seem to have no alternative
in the matter. A mere handful in
the midst of teeming population OF
over 100000 900 of natives, they find
themselves helpless in the face of
the more or less passive resistance of
the whole people TO enforce those
measures which are necessary to ar
rest the spread of the pest Isola-
ton, segregation and incubation
have been in turn tried, without sue
cess, and have merely served to
arouse the discomfort of the natives
and to damage the prestige OF the
government by demonstrating it's
powerlessness to enforce it's COM
mands. And so the authorities have
resigned themselves to the newt
able, and infected, perhaps, by the
walls throughout the orient, have Civ
en- up the fight against the DEGREES
Of Providence in so far as the plague
is concerned.
The action OF England in the mat
ter is of profound interest to every
maritime power. especially to those
who like the United States. possess
colonial dependencies in the orient.
For it will be necessary to Increase
the precautions against the pest at
every foreign port dong Trade with
India, which now being more than
ever regarded as the home of the
plague is destined to witness a still
greater decline of her commerce, and
consequently also of her industry
than she has suffered until now
Moreover, now that the British. who
are past masters in the art of dealing
with orientals, and whose experience
of the latter extends over a period Of
more than 200 years. have virtually
given up the struggle of endeavorng
to instill the principles of sanitation
into the Asiatics, and to protect the
latter from the pestilences which pc.
riodically carry off by millions the
surplus population, 1t is probable
that other colonial powers, such as
Germany, France, Russia and Aol-
land will follow suit. and that in the
Philippines Uncle Sam will abandon
the hopeless task Of intoxicating his
dusky lieges with distasteful western
notions Of sanitation.
1t was but the other day that
was reading a letter dated from Ma
Mia, published in the New York
Evening Post, a graphic account of
enc of the United States officials
there of his own efforts and of those
Of his associates to arrest che spread
of cholera and of other epidemic dis
eases by the introduction of some of
the most elementary rules of hygiene
according to our western ideas.
The entire letter, from the opening
sentence to the last line, breathed
n a,,f,.st rxf chocolate
ress that has led the British author
tiles in India to abandon after seven
years of the most arduous warfare.
all further fight against the progress
and the spread OF the plague. II was
a letter that will have appealed to
every one who, like myself, has lived
In the orient, and who has learnt by
experience that religion, caste, time
bonored customs, the mode Of life
and, above all. the pronounced ten
dency of the Asiatic of every cline
and creed, constitute insuperable OBJ
stacles to the successful application
ir thefar east of the rules of hanita-
ton of the occident.
OF all the vehicles of contagion
there are none that play a greater
role in the spread of the various cpl
denies than water Yet It seems i'm
possible to get even the most intelli-
gent of the orientals to understand
that necessity Of keeping pure the
water supply. High caste Hin1us
who regard contact with even the
very shadow Of pariah as contain
ination. will not hesitate to quench
their thirst from the pool where the
corpse Of some cholera-stricken ma
tive of low degree has a few minutes
previously been subjected to its last
additions. Peasants think nothing OF
drawing their drinking water from
the same pond that receives the
drainage Of their entire village. and
in Damietta. prior to the British oc-
cupation OF Egypt, ! can recall that
the intake OF water for the various
fountains and city reservoir was stu.
ated few yards below the spot
where the open sewers. such as they
we're, emptied their unssvory con.
tents in the River Nile.
Worst Of all are the porous earth