Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 September 1892 — PAYING THE PENALTY. [ARTICLE]

PAYING THE PENALTY.

Hamburg Deco! a ted by the Scourge ■ ( Caused by Her Apathy. The thriving, prosperous city of Hamburg has paid a fearful penalty for it» reckless neglect of ordinary sanitaryprecautions and its violation of all lawsof health when the terrible pest of cholera was right at its gates. Dispatches in the dally press give a vivid, and graphic picture of the condition of the plague-stricken city. Its usual gayety is turned to mourning. Itspalatial houses are empty and its streetsare filled with coffins and hearses. Its vast commerce is at a standstill. ltdwharves are lined with idle vessels. Itshotels are empty. Its schools, theaters, opera houses and conoert hall areclosed. The hospitals are overcrowded. The undertakers are taxed to their utmost to bury the dead. Under thisoverhanging cloud the people are naturally depressed. Those who could do sohave fled elsewhere. Those who remain, wait and wonder whose turn It will bonext, and meanwhile the poor are suffering from- a combination of miseries, in addition to their own poverty. And all this came upon the devoted city in less than a month, for it was Aug. 18 that the first case was reported. In tho brief period of twenty-two days probably over 6,000 persons had fallen victims to the disease. The official returns of the Board of Health up to Monday reported 6,124 cases and 2,676 deaths, but on the same day the director of one of the cemeteries stated he had buried 4,032 cholera victims in that period, and this was but one cemetery. All this suffering and death clearly are the outcome of criminal neglect. The first case brought to the attention of the medical inspector of the Board of Health was on Aug. 18, but he made noreport upon it until five days later. Meanwhile nothing was done to ward off the ravages of the pestilence already at work in the city. No effort was mode to stop the exportation of immigrants to other countries who were suffering with the disease. Hamburg freely admitted the disease, and asfreely sent it broadcast to Paris, Havre, London and New York. No precautions of any kind were taken until it was too late and it had spread from the low river sections of the city to the new and residence quarter. For a week or two it was confined to the lower classes who live in the suburbs of Hamm and Hammersbrook and in. Bpitaler, Stein, and other streets along the Elbe, reeking with decaying filth, garbage, and cholera-producing material, and adding their stenches to that from the poisonous waters of the river, daily made more so by the refuse from the idle vessels. Then the disease made its way into the better parte of the city, as might have been expected, for no effort was made to clean up and properly disinfect. The impure water, which is utterly unfit for drinking, helped to spread the plague. It was a terrible present which Bussia. sent to Hamburg and the world never will cease to wonder at the complacency with which Hamburg accepted it. But Hamburg is now paying the penalty which always follows the violation of sanitary laws in time of danger. If frosts do not set in soon the mortality list must swell to frightful proportions. Its business already is destroyed for the present. It is a city of suffering and death instead of the city of gayety and commercial enterprise it was four weeks ago. It stands as a conspicuous warning to all other cities. Its lesson Is to clean up, to do it at once and thoroughly, and then to keep clean. Bemove the filth. Purify the water. Burn the garbage. Make the streets and alleys and beck yards clean. Destroy the cholera-producing material. That is the lesson of Hamburg, whoso cholera victims are now quarantined in the waters of New York Bay and whoso pest ships are threatening our own ports.