The Pioche record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1908-1925, 1911-03-25

leaving behind 1t trail OF death and
disaster, and apparently defying the
efforts of both Chinese and foreign
physicians to check It, The fatal pest
is the black DEATH" and 1t is sweep
Ing through China in it's most malig-
nant form No cripples or GONZALES
cents are left in its trail, nothing but
death For 1t proves fatal In a very
few hours to each person 1t lays Its
hand on. There is no middle ground
with this dreaded pest 1t is either
escaping 1t altogether or death.
The Oriental plague is numbering
its victims by scores of thousands; 1t
will not be long until 1t is by hun
dreds of thousands. At Hardin, Man
churia, 5000 bodies of victims were
burned and the ashes buried on the
outskirts of the city. Forty-eight hun
dred Of these came from the Chinese
section of the city and the balance
from the Russian quarters. On one
day 16 stacks of collins and seven pits,
filled with bodies and oiled logs,
blazed outside the city walls.
The happenings Of Europe during
the seventeenth century, when the
BLACK plague" swept through the
country, are being repeated with all
their gruesomeness In China today.
At first the Chinese, faithful to their
weird religious rites for the dead, OBJ
jected to the plague victims being
burned, and the authorities ran up
against a great deal of trouble. Then
all was changed. Fear, bordering on
panic. gripped the Chinese. No more
do they defy the medical officers and
keep the sick and dead hidden. In
of brother against brother, or father
against son.
The stricken ones are forced into
the streets, to starve or freeze. or to
fall perishing from the swift and
deadly attack the plague makes on
but sometimes those engaged In SAM
tary work, masked and bandaged,
reach them before they die and cart
them to the pesthouse. or, II they are
dead. to the funeral pyres. Not In
frequently an outcast is to be seen
kneeling and making his obeisance
before the grave of an ancestor, in
sight of pile of bodies of which he
is soon to become one.
The mortality among the physicians
and the hospital attendants is high
considering the means taken for their
|
and orderlies are succumbing to the
disease No serum has yet been dis
covered to aid In checking the dis
ease, although the Chinese physicians
hope soon to have one of their own
the foreign importations having
proved ineffective. The courage o.
these faithful attendants, numbering
J many foreign missionaries, physicians
and nurses among them, Is wonderful
With scarcely an exception they re
main at their work, fighting the
2 plague already in their district, O.
making preparations to do battle will
1t when it arrives
In northern Manchuria the plagu,
is spreading rapidly, while in Tien
Tsin, the native city, conditions ar,
c becoming alarmingly worse. The ut
: I ter absence of any intelligent inspec
. ton and the inadequate medical or
: ganlzation make each case new cen
: ter for the spread of the infection
since there Is no isolation to proven
contact.
No ray Of comfort shines from tn
q reports being received from Hardin
/. where the Manchurian plague Is rag
ing, or from Pe31ing and other place
y In the infected district OF mort
China where the grim reaper is dali
q cutting wider swaths In the harves
of dead The Manchurian plague /
: as much of mystery as it was whe
q 1t first appeared, and all that the bes
q skill possessed by European expert