The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1910-05-14

would just as soon have the clothing
from n dead yellow fever patient sent
to his town without fumigation, and
would rather than to have some able
bodied individuals who scott at all
scientific regulations or investiga-
tions. There would be no danger to
any one from the dead yellow fever
patients clothes because the germs of
any Sumter citizens unless one or
more female stegomia mosquitoes were
here which had sucked the blood Of
a yellow fever patient during the first
| four days of the disease.
! Ignorance and skepticism kill hun
dreds of thousands of people every
year. Indifference produces ignor-
ance and skepticism. Find me a skep-
tic and 1 will show you a man or wo-
man, who seldom or never reads a
newspaper, or who can not read. A
lot of time of health officers. physi-
clans, sanitary inspectors, and even
police officers in all cities and towns
| governed upon modern sanitary prin-
ciples Is now being taken up talking
to hundreds Of people explaining just
how mosquitoes are being bred by the
million, explaining to thousands Of
uniformed people the Importance
of fighting mosquitoes. and the rela-
tion Of the mosquito and the flies to
malarial and yellow fever and typhoid
fever.
| Unfortunately there are many
thousand ignorant colored individ-
uals who are themselves immune to
malarial fever. and who do not mind
mosquito bites. Hence between he
Ignorance and Indifference Of these
people coupled with a great deal of
criminal carelessness and ignorance
among white people the sanitarian
and the progressive citizens Of all
races suffer from the ignorance of
others. 1t is very gratifying thing
to note how much good these little
talks from health officials among the
| ignorant and the skeptical are doing.
Just as soon as you make doubling
persons understand the Importance of
fighting MOSQUITOES, and to see just
how mosquitoes spread fever why
right then you have their support and
you notice that the city carts do a
rushing business hauling out thou
sands of tin cans, glass bottles, old
tin buckets. foot tubs, glass jars. and
other useless but water holding re-
ceptacles which act as breeding
places for mosquitoes.
| 1t Is, of course, impossible to en-
act ordinances covering every one of
the thousand or more things which
contribute to Ill health, or to arrest
every individual who does something
which may be detrimental to public
| health. All up to date cities have
| long since realized that the time has
gore trS hen people may be dragoon-
ed or legislated into habits of clean
liness. Education of the masses is
the quickest and surest way to stamp
out diseases of communicable ma
ture. Interchange of ideas between
health officials, civic Improvement
pride, and working individually and
collectively for sanitary Improvement
do good. The modern sanitary Off
cial now talks to those who are in
different. He can be found in the
slums and thickly crowded tenement
districts with a crowd Of negroes, or
In big cities with mixed crowd of
almost every nation listening to his
explanations. In Southern cities and
towns the health officer puts in a lot
OF time doing work like this since the
campaign of education for better hy-
gienic conditions has been inaugural
ed
Civic leagues among the ladies, an
t-tuberculosis associations different
organizations. religious, Industrial,
commercial. fraternal, social, finan-
cial. and even the ministers in the
pulpits, the teacher in the schools.
the policeman on his beat, the ply
sicians. the trained nurses, and all
progressive people are backing up the
health officials.
AS for the newspaper men Of this
country. Wen they have saved count
less thousands Of lives as the men
behind the guns in their big heart
ed liberality in giving hundreds of
thousands of dollars of space in pub
fishing information to millions of
people about the importance Of main