New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-02-01

San StcIdnO, Wltl crowded WRIT
ana a vista ot summer villas. 4
steamer from Asia has just arrived,
and promptly disgorgos a regiment OF
Anatoian cavalry. Their horses, Of
tho Arab type, arc in fine condition.
but their carbines are old-fashioncd
and the scabbards of their heavy
sabrcs are red with rust. Yet the men
themselves seem very fierce and fit, as
with their rags futtering in the breeze
they clatter off 80 the front.
San S;cfano from the wharf looks
il. iocent enough. The white-walled
villas CLEAN in the winter sunshine:
the long, slow seas. heavy with jelly
fish, crash on the rugged shore; the
thin. bare boughs wave in the salt
breeze. No sign of horror here. Yer
go but little way up the miry street.
and abb pity a sharp odOr greets you,
the pungent smell of ammonia. Then
turning a corner you are suddenly on
the edge Of the cholera camp.
The ground is white with quicklime,
and in the centre of this blanched
Devils Acre squats the Greek school
with about a hundred tents clustered
around it, In that stunted building
there are slowed away over six hun
dred cases of cholera. while IN the tents
are probably three hundred more. Be
yond are other camps OF greater eX-
tent. but less under control
And here | would say that | think
the cholera scare has been greatly en-
aggerated by the Turks TO check the
Bulgarian advance. At no TIME III
this, the largest of the isolation camps,
did the number Of cases exceed four
thousand, and at the date of which |
speak IL was probably only hall lhat
rumber. Part of the great retreat lay
through a land Of vines. and the fleeing
soldiers. ravenous with hunger, ate
avidly of the sour and rotted fruit.
The result in their enfeebled state was
an acute and deadly dysentery which
even the cleverest doctors could hardly
distinguish from cholera.
Cholera Loses Its Terrors.
| must admit that closer acquaint-
ance with cholera dispels much Of its
terror 1t is not contagious; the germ
must be taken through the lips into the
stomach 10 be infectious, and Win
proper care there is d sporting chance
of recovery In the handling OF pa
tients, gum boots. rubber coat and
gauntlet gloves are all that Is neces-
sary. On coming off duty you are
sprayed with disinfectant. wash your
hands carefully. and go TO supper with
a cheerful appetite. About all that can
be done In camp of this kind IL 10
keep the patients clean, feed them. ana
occasionally relieve their pain. But
oh. the keeping of them cIean-what
grim. hideous business ii is
In the tiny tents two, three and often
four men are packed. Sometimes they
lie so close that they overlap. They
persist in keeping the tent Hap down.
and when YOU lift it there greets you
an odor so strong you could well niGn
hang your hat and coat on IL. Huddled
i'm their clothes under the gray blank
cts. gaunt, yellow yisaged men Sroan
and writhe. Some cough continually,
as if with pneumonia. and nearly al
beg for medicine to relieve their pain
Alas. the fortitude Of the hospitals does
not extend to The cholera camp, for
from every other tent come Groans and
walls of agony. The air reeks with the
acrid, nauseating odor Of the disease.
and the ground underfoot Is unspeak-
ably loathsome.
A Model Camp.
~ die "a mn L. really q modal one