Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1898 — ITINERARY OF PRESIDENT M’KINLEY’S WESTERN TRIP. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ITINERARY OF PRESIDENT M’KINLEY’S WESTERN TRIP.

Tellow Jack’s Tentacles Spread Over Mississippi. Without the intervention of frost the spread of yellow fever over the entire State of Mississippi seems a certainty. Each night’s report indicates how surely and rapidly the disease is getting the whole State into its clutches. The continuance of the present warm weather will guarantee a further spread, which the resources of the State Board seem unable to stop. The disease is firmly rooted in all the different sections of Mississippi and its appearance in counties adjoining those already in the grasp of the fever is only a question of a short time. The State Board of Health has, of course, long ago despaired of confining the infection, and is now devoting itself more to the general work of relief and securing of nurses for the places that are stricken. It is still waging a stubborn but hopeless fight against the rapid advance and whenever a new place is reported & State inspector is sent at once with orders to isolate and cordon the town. As a general thing, however, the exposure has usually been too widespread to render this inspection of any great value. The appeal of the Governor of the State to the Federal (jovernment for relief had the effect of arousing neighboring States to the necessities of the situation. About $2,000 was raised in Memphis in one day for general distribution in the shape of food and supplies. The helpless destitution of negro reconcentradoes continues in Jackson and other towns without material alleviation. They crowd as close to the guard line as possible when anyone goes down near the cordoned district and beg eagerly for money and supplies. Many without families have managed to get out and away. Helpless, ignorant creatures, they cannot understand why they should be sacrificed for the general good. The executive department of the State government is located at Brandon, Miss., a small station on the Queen and Crescent road twelve miles from Jackson. Jackson is the city most affected, and the virulence of the disease among negroes has demonstrated that they are no more immune than white people. The mortality remains small, only five deaths having been recorded so far at the State capital. In the smaller towns, however, new cases are reported daily in totally unexpected quarters, and in some places have caused a panic. Realizing that its efforts were unavailing, the Mississippi State Board of Health has appealed for aid to the Federal Government. Since the cordoning of the yellow fever Infected districts and even towns with a Strict guard the condition of affairs has rapidly grown worse. More than G.OOO people, according to official figures, are in absolute need of food, not to mention the necessity for nurses. The acute stage that the situation has reached is proved by the official appeal for aid to the President of the United States issued by the State Board of Health.

The panic continues. A grewsome illustration of the state, of public feeling was reported by Dr. Harrison. health officer of Le Flore County. A tramp entered the neighborhood of Phillips, a small inland town in that county, three days ago. He was taken sick, and sought refuge in a negro church, where he remained two days before he was discovered, and his sickness diagnosed by Dr. Harrison as yellow fever. ■>. The whole neighborhood was in a panic. Jackson was wired for an expert to come and confirm the diagnosis. None of the citizens would go near the patient, who was in a dying condition. Dr. Harrison's practice compelled him to leave him for several hours alone. When he returned the church was in ashes, and the tramp consumed in the flames. The yellow fever reports show a total of 465 cases in Louisiana this summer, and thirty deaths and 351 cases in Mississqipi and thirty-five deaths.