Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 September 1892 — IN A RAT TRAP. [ARTICLE]

IN A RAT TRAP.

Deplorable Condition of the Cab* in Passengers of the Steam- - er Normannia. FaVMHt' to. s*iiuiia <>» the Quarantined Ship With the Dread Cholera Raglag in the Steerage a'ad Among the Crew. , Quarantine, Sept. 10.—The cholera sit" nation at quarantine is no dqabt very grave. New eases are breaking ant every day among the steerage passengers of the ill-fated Normannia and Rugla, the former of whom are on Hoffman island' and if anything can t>» done to add to the ; horror of tht situation it is the fact that the cabin passengers sfho have been free from any sign of the disease, are still kept like rats in a trap inclosed within the. sides of the steamer with cholera raging alongside them. ~ ~ “No ship to put them on. no place where I can land them,” says the health officer, while the agents, whose place it is to see passengers eared for, say nothing. Jenkins has made strenuous exertions to obtain a place to put tho well passengers, but up to the present he has been unsuccessful. Dr. Jenkins said he had asked Governor Flower to annex Fire Island, which was private proporty. ami ret htm p'rt thß cabin passengers ashore at once, and he thought it might be possible to do so and have an appraisement of its value made later on. ' As regards the situation at the lower quarantine, things aro no better than on the previous day. In fact they are. much worse in regard to mortality, elevon fresh cases and four deaths being the day's record, though one of the deaths took place at u very late hour yesterday. The new. cases on the Normania are Franz Albrecht, aged twenty-four,- Adolph Meir, aged twenty-live; Gotliob Dauishon aged thirty-six; Carl Grumich, aged twen ty-one, all among the crew. On the Rugia tho new cases are Gustav Wellschopper, aged twenty-one; Johann Pod ratski a, aged forty-four; Fejeua Kunshin. aged thirty Eight persons who were exposed to patients of tho same families .have been removed to Swinburne island and Isolated for observation. -- There is but one new ease on Hoffman., island—Ciari Biunnig, aged thirty-eight, A steerage passenger was removed to Swinburne island. He was one of tho Normannia’s pnssangeis. The Swinburuo Island deaths are: Elfrida Schultz, aged eight years, from the Rugia, admitted September 3. Henry Frankel, aged thirty-nine years, admitted from.tiw Normannia September 4; one of the crew, Jacob Kessler, aged thirtythree years, who was removed from Hoffman island September 4, and Christine Hansen, aged ten years, from -the Rugia, admitted September C. The nurse is bettor. James O’Rourke, aged thirty-two, a son of tho former superintendent of Swinburne island, was assigned to that Island as telegraph operator. Tho following. letter, written on th, Normannia, on Sept. 7, was received in thb eity to-day at the office of tho Evangelist, from tho Rev. Daniel W. Fish erD. D., LL. D., President of Hanovpr College, Hanover, Ind: “Onbehalf of the cabin passengers of the ill fated ship, I appeal to you for help. We are perfectly willing to be quarantined, but in tho name of humanity and civilization, not to speak of Christianity let tho quarantine bo at least rational and not barbarous; We have not been sick io thecabin, except in one case, which seems to have had almost no cholera symptoms, and that occurred teu days ago. We hav« succeeded in getting the steerage away But the crew can not bff removed. The ship must hove them aboard. Ono after another they sicken. Under these cireuinstances wo scarcely dare to hope that ultimately we shall escape. At any rate, when can such a quarantine end? Think of children, women, feeble persons, any set of men, eyen criminals, left to wear out the danger of cholera in this fashion. The whole system is “anchor the ship out as far at sen as possible and let the disease do what it can.” If any set of people were in any other situation, enduring such peril as ours, millions of voices would bo raised to rescue us without a moment's delay. Why are we unworthy of help, situated as wo aro? Surely not because help is Impossible. Put us on another vessel. Land us at some safe point on shore and seclude us to any extent. But for God’s sake do not perpetuate this barbarism hero for a day longer. Try to hslp us at once. Yours very truly, D. W. Fisher. ” p. S.—Why aro we on this ship? Because the agent of tho company in London assured almost every passenger who embarked at Southampton that there was no steerago this trip. Some of us have Ills written statement that this ship had sailed from Hamburg without steerage. Freight train No. 6 on tho Big Four, west bound, was wrecked at Enou, Wednesday morning, by some villain opening the switch'Tflck. Twenty-seven cars, filled with merchandise and coal, were wrecked, and burned till Thursday in spite of tho efforts of the Dayton and SprlngUold fire departments. Engineer Ferguson was literally burned to a crisp Head brakeman Gtis Shade, of Delaware, was badly hurt. The lost will amount to I 1,000.