Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-07-29
YELLOW FEVER PANIC
Reported Increasing in the
Smaller Towns.
QUARANTINE Is SEVFRE
STATE AND MISSISSIPPI POINTS
BAR NEW ORLEANS.
Commercial Disaster II Embargo -
Put on Freight From the
Crescent City.
QUARANTINE rs SEVFRE

ing IN the smaller towns of Louisiana and
Mississippi and that disposition is grow
ing to revive the disastrous commercial
Quarantines of 1897. when some of the coun-
try towns even refused to receive Ice or
hardware from New Orleans. Columbia.
La. bars all kinds OF merchandise except
hardware. Utica, Miss. Will not receive
freight of any kind; Osyka Miss. will teke
no fruit or vegetables; jackson. La. wants
no houserold articles from New Orleans.
Several towns In Tennessee and others
along the Mississippi Valley road in Missis-
s!ppi refuse TO allow express matter of any
kind to be put off, Port Gibson will not
take bread or anything wrapped in burlap
| that may be shipped from this city. Some
OF the Texas towns asking that the
! mails be fumigated.
Quarantine of Freight.
II the movement to quarantine freight
| spreads New Orleans will suffer much more
| seriously than from the fever itself.
| Up to the present there has been no local
| apprehension of a dangerous epidemic, and
| 1t was believed that If the boards of health
in other states lived up rigidly to. their
| agreement not to place any restrictions
| upon the transportation of freight there
| would be only slight reduction of business.
| and the chief Inconvenience would be the
| inability of the country people to come
| southern towns and cities.
Anticipating the guarantees, most of the
| business houses, with the discovery or
| fever, notified their drummers not TO come
| to town. but TO remain in their territory, SO
| that they might travel freely and send In
| their orders usual during the prevalence
of the sickness, but if there is an embargo
| put on freight now, New Orleans travelling
statesmen will find their usefulness at an
| end and New Orleans natural business Will
! be diverted to other points
History of First Case.
! The history of the OF yellow fever re-
| ported at Lumberton, Miss. the first in that
| state has not yet been traced, but 1t Is
| not considered improbable that the victim
| is one of the many Italians who fled from
| the French market district here. Very prob
ably cases will develop at other points,
though the danger is constantly lessening,
because so tight is the Gordon drawn around
New Orleans now, at least so far as the
emergence of Italians is concerned, that
1t is doubtful If any more Will be able TO
leave the city.
Lumberton Is on the Ship Island road.
and Ii would not have been difhcult Tor an
Italian from here to have gone via the
Louisville and Nashville railroad ana the
Ship Island road to that point. DR.. Was
din of the marine hospital service Is In
charge of the Lumberton case, which has
been screened and isolated and Is being
scientifically treated.
1t is not considered probable that there
will be any spread there, and the Ship
Island trains will continue to run to Gulf
port.
The cleaning campaign continues to be
carried on with great energy, and every
cart to hire in the city has been requisi-
toned by the public works department and
the citizens committee. Hundreds OF bar
res of lime being used in the effort to
purify streets. cutters and back yards The
masses of the people think the disinfec-
tants serve a double purpose, that or Kill
ing germs and that of putting fever-bear-
ing mosquitoes out Of the way.
The Era Club, one of the chief woman's
organizations of the city, has volunteered
its services to Dr. Beverly Warner, pro-
posing TO hold parlor meetings daily, In
order that the women of t1e city may be
instructed in the crusade against the mos
quitoes and the best methods Of riddng
the city OF them.
Depopulation of Gulf Towns.
The depopulation of the Mississippi gulf
towns of summer visitors from New Or
leans continue, owing to Gov. Vardamans
determination that these towns shall have
no communication with New Orleans. The
governor said he would not bulge from his
position If every man. woman and child on
the coast personally appealed to him. He
said, leaving out the cost in human life, an
epidemic of the fever on the coast would
mean $20,0O0,ooo in depreciation OF real es-
tate alone.
1T will be better" said the governor,
'for the citizens of these towns TO be bot
tied up and eat mullet and crabs and escape
the yellow fever than to get all the reve-
nue. they can out of the refugees and have
one case of yellow fever among them"
Much sympathy is felt here for Memphis,
which has been compelled to quarantine
New Orleans against her will On the first
report of the fever that city sent a repre-
sentative here, who put himself in close
touch with the situation and saw no neces-
sty for quarantine, and the health authori-
ties would have doubtless kept their prom
ise not to bar New Orleans refugees if the
imposition of guarantees by other cities
against Memphis had not forced them TO
act in self-defense.
The Chattanooga Quarantine.
Some inconvenience has been felt by the
Chattanooga quarantine Many well-to-do
people here We're sending their families to
Lookout mountain for the rest OF the sea-
son. but the putting up of the bars at Chat
tanooga will divert New Orleans travel from
that point.
The board of health repeated TODAY its
announcement that the destruction OF bed
ding and household property has no place
IN its campaign, and that such waste
or property Will be attempted. In former
epidemics here millions of dollars worth
of household property destroyed in the
effort to exterminate the supposed germ of
yellow fever. The announcement of the
board will, 1t is thought, be helpful in
securing the prompt report of even the
slight cases of fever
The quarantines have greatly disarranged
railroad passenger service. All the roads
have had TO take of local trains. All
weekly aad semi-weekly excursions to
nearby resorts have been abandoned.
Through trains carrying large numbers
of passengers bound for the northern and
eastern resorts. but travel south has nat
urally fallen off, though the hotel registers
daily show some arrivals of people from
the north coming here on business mis-
sions.
Mayors Statement.
Mayor Martin Behrman today gave out
the following signed statement to the news
papers:
New Orleans IS suffering moro from the
rigid Quarantlnes than from yellow fever.