Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1921-03-25
DEADLY. IYPHUS
r. 29als.:i:E
Every PfeCautiOn Being Made TO
=! '.iKee1 Disease 0ldt'of tt>ts.
IT is MORE DEADLY THAN BULLETS
Hundreds of Immigrants Held up Out
= side New York HarBor Beeadse OF
lnfsetioh-oftern Do Not Understand
and Make TroubIe-costIy to Steam
ship companies-De!ousins Plants
Established.
(By Frederick, J. Haskin)

phus germ cannot be Americanzed. It
is one European product that must be
kept out of the well-worn melting pot !;
one danger which cannot be accepted
and absorbed even by such an undis-
eliminating nation as ours. Immf-
grants may be compelled to suffer
hardship; travellers be inconvenienced;
and steamship companies lose money,
but the typhus cootie must be pre-
vented from entering this country
Everybody Is agreed as. to this; only
there are various disagreements as to
how it is to be done and the nation
as a whole seems to be painfully slow
in making up its mind.
Already 40 cases Of typhus have oc-
CURED in New York City and, its har-
Dor, with several deaths as a result.
Nearly every ship arriving from a
foreign port carries infected. immi-
grants, while thousands Of others.
suspected Of the same condition, will
continue to sail for this country as fast
as there Is steerag age space to accommo-
date them.
Yet the New York City Health De-
partment has been severely criticized In
some quarters for adopting prompt and
rigorous measures to bar typhus YER
min, and only in the past few days
have the Federal health authorities
been given permission to act in the
matter.
1.-The importance of the typhus dan
ger cannot be overestimated," DR..
Royal S. Copeland, Health Commits
sioner Of New York City, told the re-
porter in a brief interview the other
afternoon. "Some people are inclined to
| think that we have raised rather
needless scare, but that is because they
are unacquainted with typhus. They
do not know that it is one Of the dead
liest scourges to which mankind Is vic
tim. They do not know that more men
died of typfius In Serbia: during, the
war than were killed in battle. They
do not realize that one infected in1mi-
grant released in this city, might
spread a plague that would cause
million deaths in the space of few
weeks"
DR.. Copeland was the first person to
recognize the fact that typhus emer-
gency existed. AS soon as the first
cases were discovered, he notified the
immigration authorities and stationed
fumigating squads at the Battery to
inspect immigrants arriving in the city
from Ellis Island. Many were found
to be vermin infected and had to be
put through the delousing process
Others carried bundles and suitcases.
containing infected clothing. r
Chaos at Port.
This caused a great deal Of conster-
nation at both Ellis Island and Hoff-
mans Island the quarantine station,
where the immigrants I'D been passed
without question. The health au-
thorities at both Of these places i'm
mediately started making special in
spections for typhus Infection, which
naturally required much more time
than the ordinary health inspections.
They were delayed in their work by
the lack of pre- .rer facilities. Ships,
with steerage passengers who had to
be examined, began to pile up in the
larbor, and thus arose the present
congested condition.
The Federal authorities have recent
ly taken over the state quarantine sta
ton at Hoffman's Island, but inasmuch
as the facilities have not been in
creased, conditions are not noticeably
improved. Reporters are not permitted
to add to the general chaos at Hoff-
mans Island, but from the stories Of
returned travellers. one learns that the
immigrants have sad time there.
ut was early morning and frightfully
cold when they came for the immi-
grants on our ship in a small tug boat"
narrated an American woman who ar
rived on IL French ship the other day.
"They began to transfer she infected or
suspected immigrants at once, but not
without fight, because the French Of
ficials objected, saying that the immi-
grants were perfectly clean. The poor
people, having come from Italy and the
south Of France, were not prepared for
a cold climate. Their clothing was dis
tressingly scanty and they trembled
with cold. Those who did not get ty-
phus probably got pneumonia later
Mothers were dragged away from their
children and all bundled into the tug.
Many Of them could not speak. English
and did not understand what it was all
about. They kept them over there at
Hoffman's Island all day, waiting for
examinations, and during all that time
they did not have a thing to eat. or
course, suppose the government can
not help it, but / do think something
ought to be DONE"
This woman'S ship was fortunate
however, TO be held up only "a hours.
Others have had to lie in the harDor
for two or three days while the quar-
antne office caught up with its work.
On one Of these detained ships, the i'm