Omaha daily bee., 1908-10-25
SCOURCE IN RUSSIA
Morgues Piled to Ceiling with I'm
identified Corpses.
D1s1NFECT1oN NOT PRACTICED
Sufferers often Left for Hours Writh-
ing in streets Uncared For
one village t. wholly
Wiped Out.

To the happier Inhabitants OF lands WnCre
cholera Is either unknown or kept well In
hand, the orgies Of death which that terri
bic epidemic Is holding in some OF the
smaller Russian towns would be incredible.
There. thanks TO the lack OF organization
and grossly unhealthy conditions, victims
have been lying III IN the streets, neglected
in the hospitals and urburied in the ceme-
terles. I have had reports Of mortuaries
so overcrowded that the corpses are
stacked up from floor 10 ceiling. Those
coming to claim relatives who died 81
other diseases have been obliged, in some
cases. TO spend hours in the pestilcnttal
air. till they could find the bodies they
search and could pull them from amongst
the cholera stricken.
When the cholera was first declared IN
other provinces a commission was ap.
pointed in st. Petersburg by M. Rezcow
the president Of the town. But the chair
man, M. Oppenheimer, left for Carlsbad
before any arrangements were made to
combat the epidemic and practically moth
ing was done. There is no drainage in
st. Petersburg worthy the name. All the
sewage is thrown into the canals. which
are never cleaned more than cree a year,
and send up a most terrible stencil as soon
nh AlA0 ~ AAlo va III Nv 'HAiA@ ''N AA'N
victims of the epidemic were workingmcn,
cab drivers and porters, who drink the
water out OF these canals, which is poison
at the best Of times, let alone when cholera
is about. Now, the police have put up
placards at the street corners to forbid
them, under a threat of paying s. penalty,
TO drink this water, and the magistracy
has made arrangements for hot tea to be
distributed gratis in all the principal
streets. The sale of fruit has been strictly
prohibited. and It. therefore. goes 10 other
towns from the cholera infected districts.
Half Cases Prove Fatal.
Considering these thiugs. It is, therefore,
not surprising to find that 300 and 400 cases
occur daily. of which at least 50 per cent
prove mortal. Everybody who can afford
to do so has fled from the city. The
dreaded disease has now found its way into
the well-to-do houses and into the Cadets
college. The hospital and town ambu-
lances are quite unable to cope with the
work. for people fall down Ill who felt per-
fectly well a few minutes before. 1t is
hard 70 believe that most OF them are sert
in cabs and public conveyances to the
hospitals; but such is the case, and. what
Is more, these vehicles are not even cleaned
afterwards, to say nothing of being disin-
fected. AS the poor cabbies are often not
paid for taking a sick man to the hospi-
tai, because nobody has any time to bother
about them, they whip up their horses and
get away as soon as they see a man or
woman lying on the pavement in contor-
lions, and the victim Is left alone till one
of the sanitary inspectors or a policeman
sees him. When taken to the hospital the
patient cannot receive proper care because
they are not half enough doctors; and med
ical students. though offered good pay by
the town, refuse to help. one doctor has
400 patients to look after in a day. Nurses
are almost unknown; there is nobody to
give the patients medicine or try their tenn
perature. so that the result is a huge per-
centage OF deaths. As one harassed,
worked-to-death doctor said: 'If they get
we'll they do-and II they don't. It's not
my fault. for I've only one pair Of hands
and legs"
Patients suffering from other complaints
have as bad a time OF it as anybody-not
only do they get no attention now, but
many Of them have been sent away be-
cause they must make room for cholera
cases. Several large barracks are ais. full
OF them-but what is h when hundreds
fall III daily? .
Heu rape Follows Death.
There is in Petersburg a hospital rcguIa-
ton to the effect that every patient who
dies within twenty hours OF admittance
must be dissected. 1t is characteristic of
Russian red tape that this regulation was
adhered to for several days after the
cholera broke out, so that the operating
theaters were piled high with dead bodies
which nobody had any time to dissect. AT
last 1t struck one of the Inspectors that
1t is impossible to disSect 400 corpses daily
and the regulation wa abolished.
The victime are buried outside the town
30 that the collins must 20 by train
Thirty or forty trucks are filled with the
collins of those who have died a day OF
so before and two or three nassenge,
saloons ara put on for the dead people',
friends and relatives. Such a train started
yesterday by the Mikolujewska railway
carrying $50 collins. On arriving at the
cemetery it was found that thlrty-foul
coffins, bought the day before. were still
awaiting burial. Though the grave dig.
gers had worked hard till niRhtfall it wa
impossible to bury all, and the rest wer,
piled up for the night in the cemetery. the
mourners waiting there till daylight. afrai,
that, II they went away, others would ar
rive In the morning and get their dea,
buried first. These scenes are repeate,
daily and many wait for a couple OF day,
before they see their dead relatives an,
friends buried. As all the collins ar,
alike being painted with tar, and no In
scriptions are put on them, very few
people know which box really contains tn,
remains of their dearest ones. The resul
Is that the most terrible scenes Of des
pair and protestation occur whilst IN,
wailings of women and children fin tn,
air.
In the provinces things are no better
and disinfection is almost unheard OF il
small towns. In one village called karnki
In the government Of Ever, 40 out OF tn
500 died. II was decided to burn every
thing, corpses, houses and barns together
The police came and, giving the thirt,
survivors time to get away. threw fire
brands into the place. This drasti
measure seemed to be the only way of pre-
venting the epidemic spreading all owe
the province.
LORD MAYOR WELL QUALIFIED