The Holbrook news., 1911-05-26

and left. The plague conditions have become a menace to the world. The whole northeastern corner of the em- pire and of Manchuria are in the grip of a fresh outbreak of the black death and the civilized nations of the world are rushing physicians and med ical supplies to the east in an effort to prevent the spread of the pestilence to other lands.
 Never before in the history of China has there come a plague that has brought such dumb terror to the hearts of the people as has this most recent outbreak. Swift in it's fatal ity, 1t has swept from village to viii lage, up one country road and down another, until 1t seems that no part of China is immune from its ravages. As the black plague in the middle ages swept down the valley of the Nile. transforming a garden seat of the world into a valley of death; as later in Spain there were none that did not mourn; as in England but half of all London escaped; so in some parts of China there is scarcely family that has not been visited.
 The unsanitary condition of the cities and towns in China where the dreadful pneumonia plague is raging is responsible in large measure for the spread of the disease. The pres ent pestilence is pneumonia rather than bubonic, that is, it almost invari- ably proves fatal. One of the terrify- ing things about 1t is that it spreads through the air. In the bubonic plague the microbe is communicated by bites of f1eas from infected rats. In the pulmonary form the patients themselves transmit the disease by expectoration or fits of coughing. in which they scatter germs with which their lungs are filled. Several doctors have been infected in this way and have died.
 The Chinese cities offer fertile field for the propagation of the dis ease. The people are crowded to- gether like herrings in barrel and once the disease has appeared in a house 1t is almost sure to contam- mate all the inmates and to spread quickly through the whole city. There
  are the sole scavengers and where sanitation Is of the most primitive kind. Contrary, too, to general belief, which regards worship of ancestors as the main religion of China, there are many parts of the great empire where the dead are not inferred at all. The cofins containing the dead are placed on the ground in places spe- cially reserved for the purpose near towns and villages and are preyed upon by dogs and wild beasts. Now, in the plague-infected regions the dead are being burned. A wagon driven by a man wearing a muff1er sprayed with iodoform, goes through the streets and collects the bodies from the houses. They are then taken to great pits outside the city or town, soaked with kerosene and burned. after which a little loose earth is thrown upon them.
 The recrudescene of the plague in China began in Fuchiaten. in Man churia, one of the filthiest towns in all the east. Little attention was paid to 1t at first and 1t continued to spread with great rapidtty. The dead were thrown into the streets, where they lay exposed. and often, accord ing to correspondents. those afflicted with the pestilence were placed in the streets to die. Over 5000 persons have perished in the Chinese quarter of Fuchiaten. It was not until the black death had spread over large section of Manchuria that the nations of the world were aroused to the menace. And now the plague. unless almost superhuman efforts are put forth, promises to spread beyond con- trol.