The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1905-07-25
SELFISHNESS OF
new Y6RK
With An Utter Disregard
of New Jersey Tuber-
culosis Patients Are
Sent Through the
State.
NO PRECAUTIONS ARE TAKEN
Thousands Travel Yearly AS
First Glass Passengers Who
Are a Menace to Those
Around.
NO PRECAUTIONS ARE TAKEN


With Grass disregard of the health, not
to say lives, of the 1,OOO, 900 inhabitants
of four great counties of northern New
| Jersey, says the Newark Daily Adver-
! tiser,' the authorities of New York City
propose to convey the pauper consump-
tives of the metropolis through these po-
| litical subdivisions of the commonwealth
! to the sanitarium they have established
in the Empire State. The sufferers from
| tuberculosis of the great city, are, ac-
cording to plans which are obstinately
adhered to despite remonstrance and en-
| treaty to be placed on board the Pa
vonfa ferryboats, used by multitudes of
| Jersey people every day, assembled in
| the Erie Railroad station in Jersey City,
where 10000 commuters gather night
| and morning. and finally transported as
| first4class passengers in the cars of that
railroad thirty-one miles through this
State to Otisville Orange County, y. T.,
| where the sanitar um is to be established.
No extraordinary precautions are to be
| taken to prevent the unfortunates of the
| metropolis from sowing the germs of
| their dread disease in New Jersey. In
deed, it would almost seem that disre-
| gard of some of the most ordinary pre-
cutions is contemplated.
If an attempt were deliberately to be
made to disseminate the germs Of the
-"Great White Plague = it IS difficult to
conceive how a more effective method
could be devised. No better vehicle
could perhaps be found for the reception
Of the disease bacilli than the vitiated
air of the ferryboat.
The crowds that rush hither and thlth-
er at the terminal station of great raE-
read can be relied upon to scltt the
deadly particles of dried sputum over the
widest area. The plush seats OF the
railroad coaches would furnish admira-
bic lodging places for the germs until
such time as they would enter the lungs
of human beings.
Not alone would the commuters who
are to be brought directly in contact
with the consumptives be affe ted, nor
would the counties through which these
unfortunates are to str5am be alone n
the peril Every person whom the com
muters themselves might meet would be
subject to the infection. every communi-
tt they might visit would share the dam
ger.
DR.. Thomas Darlington, New York, 3
Health Commissioner. in recently pub
lished statement estimated that the. e
were 5000 consumptives in New York
ciry. most of them living on the lower
East Side The primary capacity of the
sanitorium would be about $50. but ulti-
mately it will be greatly inc easel, as
it is the intention of DR. Darlington to
secure the expenditure of S750,000 in
| addition to the $25O,0O0 which the Board
Of Estimate Of his city has appropriated
for the acquisition of seven farms, and
the erection Of suitable buildings for im-
mediate use.
The fact that such large percentag ge
of the consumptives of New York lives
on the lower East Side indicates that
when the plan of DR.. Darlington has
been fully worked out the city viii have
thousands Of indigents eligible for adm $
sion TO tile Ordnge County Hospital
With large sums to be spent in en,arg-
ing municipal sanitorium for tubercu
lar diseases and thousands of people to
be cared for there, it is readily seen that
the day is not far distant when patients
will be taken almost daily over the Erie
ferry and railroad to Otisville. They
will travel in the same conyeyances with
the people Of Newark. Jersey City, Pat
erson. Passaic and other suburbs.
The importation of tubercular pat 'ents
into New Jersey, NTH their hacking
coughs, germ-laden sputum and pgison-
ous breath, would impefil the life and
the health Of every one of the 10000
commuters who daily use the Pavonia
ferryboats. CONSUMPTION i not directly
contagious, but is communicable through
germs exhalefi bv subjects and by the
spntum which il constantly raised.
Millions of deadly germs may be as