Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-10-26
Terror of Yellow Fever Even
Turks in Beautiful Port of
Ecuador.
GREED OF MERCHANTS
BAR TO IMPROVEMENT
Reputation as q Pest Hole Keeps
Out Competition and They
.4t.s
Prosper.
BY CHARLES M. PEPPER.

BY CHARLES M. PEPPER.
GUAYAQUIL. October 10, lola
Guayaquil is so fair to look upon that
one wonders whether it is not really the
paradise of the tropics. Coming up the
Guayas river, there Is a perpetual piano.
rama of green on either side. The hills
beyond Duran, where the railway starts
on its climb over the Andes to Quito. are
draped with emerald verdure. From the
deck of the steamship anchored in mid
stream. the city itself flashes with color.
Yet Guayaquil is one of the world s
plague spots. and for half a century has
had reputation for unhealthiness that
has been unsurpassed by any port In
the orient The indifference shown by
the rich community which controls Its
destiny has added to Its Ill fame Ma
larial fevers are merely incidents OF Nv
ing in this swampy region, and the ma
tiyes themselves are not exempt. Small
pox may almost be said to be endemic,
although it prevails with the usual mild
ness of this disease in the tropics.
Yellow Fever the Terror.
Yellow fever is the malady which has
given Guayaquil its terror. In former
days, when Panama and other west coast
ports were infected. Guayaquil always
could be counted on to make worse
showing, though this was not admitted.
'Guayaauil itself frequently presented a
defensive front against the other ports,
as It does now occasionally, especially II
there happens to be acute political ques-
tons at issue with neighboring countries.
The humor of these defensive measures Is
nfvn 70 fra
from other ports on the west coast. Ten
or twelve years ago some of us who had
come from Panama and thought we were
going to get up into the interior to Quito
were made to feel the humor OF being
turned back and not allowed to land be-
cause we might bring the fever. There
were just a dozen cases in GuayaQuli
Hospital at that time.
Notwithstanding the high mortality
rate for strangers. there always has been
a foreign colony in Guayaquil, survivors
of those adventurous commercial pioneers
who wanted to share In the prize of its
rich commerce. The people Of Guayaquil
may never have quite deserved the repu-
tation given them of cynical indifference
to the dangers to which the foreigners
were exposed, but they were philosophical
about IL. Though everybody who came
from beyond THE equatorial region was
exposed to the Infection, the view that
the inhabitants took was that II was his
chances. This may be one reason why
Guayaquil differs from the other west
coast ports in the extent to which its
commerce and financial interests have
been kept in native hands. Gradually
the foreigners have crept in and have got
their share of the cacao or chocolate
bean trade, and also of the coffee and
other tropical products. One-hfth of the
chocolate which the world consumes Is
produced in Ecuador.
Large Foreign Colony.
The foreign colony is now quite numers
Gus. which is evidence that some of those
who came from healthy world outside
have survived. One of these, an Ameri
can. has often thrown open his home to
his stricken fellow-countrymen. and he
had to notify friends or relatives in the
states of the outcome. Another foreigner,
a European, after forty years residence
in Guayaqui finds himself surrounded
by q patriarchal band. and declares that
it is not a bad place in which to rear
fever the first year he came and. having
survived. became a philosopher. A IA
vorite bit of philosophy he takes from
Swinburne's Garden of Proserpine':
From too much love OF living.
From hope and fear set free
can cure the newcomers of too much
love of living The Households on the
Styx' also enters into his philosophy. al
though the Guayas river is hardly COM
parable to the Styx. 1t is broad and deep
and has swift current.
Guayaquils yellow-fever record con-
tains the names of some notable victims.
When Thomas Mast, the cartoonist,
found his career ended and sought a po-
sition in the consular service the only
Ig.k, III 81 III
at Guayaquil. Mast came down to a
passing steamer one day to greet an
American minister going down to Chile.
He spent the day on board the steamer,
drew funny picture of himself as con-
sui at Guaydquil and presented Ii to the
minister. When the latter arrived at his
post he read in the newspapers of Mast $
death from yellow fever. ST.
Maj. John A. Hartman. a retired officer
of the Engineering Corps of the United
States Army, whose engineering genius
made the construction of that railway
possible, lived long enough to see his
studies verified and the rails carried over
the most difficult section of the Andes.
Then. one day when he was directing the
work out on the road he complained of ill
ness and in four days was buried, a vic
tim of the fever. Scores of men, some
of them bright young Americans, who, in
humble capacity. helped build this rail-
way, met the same fate.
MOSQUITOES Deadly Bite.
Dr. Whitman. a capable officer of the
United States marine hospital service, or
the public health service, as 1t now is,
one day was ordered from CaIlao to
Gpayaquil. He has made a reputation
from his studies of the bubonic plague
He remarked that his new field doubt
less wouid give him a chance to extend
his researches into yellow fever A few
months later he said one day that he
feared an infected mosquito had bitten
him. Within five days he was buried
year or more ago revolutionary
events made the presence of the Ameri-
can gunboat. the Yorktown. In Ecuado-
r1an waters necessary. The necessity for
its presence had just passed and the
yorktown was about to depart for other
waters when Commander Bartelotte was
stricken with the fever and died
Instances of this kind tend to accen-
tuate the suggestion that the sanitation
OF 6uayaquii may not be purely domes-
tic matter.
Bubonic plague did nor reach Guayaou;
till long after il ravaged Bombay and
other ports of the Orient although such
a pesthole would be hospitabIe TO lis
early coming. II had been epidemic a,
various points the west coast. from
Panama TO Valparaiso. before it found Its
way up the Guayas river. Payta. ir
northern Peru, almost at Guayaouil's
front door, had been devastated bv IL anf
the procession of victims being taken r.
the hospital, while others were CARRIED
out TO burial, was a common sight from
the decks of the vessels which were IN
that period anchored out in Payta bay.
Some observers said that the buhoni,
spared Guayaquil because il could no,
fight its way in against the other plaques
The municipality maintained that n,