1910.
T3
THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAX, - PORTLAND, DECE3IBER
11,
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BT JOHN F.LFRF.TU WATKINa
a GAIN grim Demon Chotera lurks
without our gateways, striving
to force an entrance, but the Na
tion's serve should be calmed by the
knowledge that the same etrrn fran
ral who kept this black monster out
vlwg it last menaced us IS Autumns
ago. is still at his post, armed rap-a-pie
and with a far more efficient army at
1:1a command.
Tou remember how the Nation
blanched upon that September morning
ln 18J when It read of the arrlral at
New Tork of the Moravia from Ham
burg;, with cholera raging" between
decks and with 22 corpses left la her
wake all Ttcttms of the ssme terrible
Infection. And you recollect thet while
this cholera ship heaved to and fro
wtthln the harbor of the metropolis
and while wise doctors disagreed over
the best means to save the Nation, there
was made at Washington a sudden
stroke which shut the demon out and
called down the )at-h.
General of the Health Guard.
This stroke was the promulgation of
an edlrt by Benjamin Harrison. Presi
dent of the I'nlted States, proclaiming
a quarantine of 20 days for all immi
grant Teasels from cholera-Infected re
gions, and the man who framed the
proclamation for the chlrf magistrate's
signature was Walter Wyman. an in
defatigable young Western surgeon,
who only a year before had been com
missioned by that same President
and confirmed by the St-nate aa Surgeon-General
of the marine hospital
service. Young Wyman. after taking
his A. B. at Amherst, his M- I. at the
Ht. Louis Medical College, and a post
graduate course of study at Vienna,
had been In charge of various marine
hospitals throughout the country since
the centennial year. 1S7. and what had
tailed him to the attention of the pow
ers that sit upon the seals of the
mighty In Washington, were certain
crusades which he had waged for the
betterment of our seafaring men. Thus
he had had laws passed for the benefit
'of our seamen of the merchant marine
and had exposed cruelties imposed up
on deck hands on our Western river,
also upon crews of the Chesapeake
'oyster fleets, for whom he had a hos
pital established. Rather Insignificant
. -jras the authority investsd tn him when
"first he was brought to Washington to
'command the army of disease fighters,
which he had entered aa a subaltern,
but quickly it was enlarged Into a vast
power. In whh-h functionaries of
American commonwealth and of for
eign nations stand tn awe.
Ml one object In life, sine be was
made guardian of the nation's health.
. It years ago. has been to keep foreign
'infections outside the Federal bound
aries, anj local Infections within stata
'boundaries. And he ha made good.
'Some attribute his aucrea to a deter
: mined Jaw and other features of his
physiognomy wlii. h bear htm in strik
ing resemblance to Theodore Roose
veii. for whom he I oflen mistaken In
public places. epecal!r when In com
pany with his frl-nd William leb.
Commenting upon the fart that be
I still a bachelor, thev recently opined
up at his office that he Is so thorough
ly we.!. ted to his work thst he would
consll-r any other alliance a merely
mursanatu- In comparison.
The Terrible Year
That was a terrible cholera year
HS:-1im h flrt tU us from the
.-ourge. Fifteen countries were rav
aged. :0.000 poor devils giving up their
white ghosts In Russia alone as a re
sult of It: iO.OOO In Persia: 11.000 la In
dia, snd the same number In Mecca. It
swept also through Syria. Roumanla,
Hungary. Gallcla. Spain. Hamburg.
Helglum and Franc, whence it crossed
the chanpel to Prltaln. And again in
12. when It reappeared in most of
these countries. Pr. Wyman redoubled
Ms energies and kept It out. and it was
Immediately after this that he framed
the legislation pasej in 1SI which
put the Federal Government securely in
control of seaJ.oard quarantines and
th detention of Infected passengers oo
Interstate railway and water craft.
When It l trt Ift India.
What we have escaped since these
tight bars were put up you can see by
a glance at the record of nnte-quaran-tlne
times. Although known in India,
since centuries before Christ, cholera
did not overflow that vast empire until
the terrible epidemic of 1S17. which.
. after mowing down thousands of Hrlt
Ish soldiers in India, was carried from
Bombay Into China. Arabia. Persia.
Mesopotamia. Sj rla. Palestine and to
the shores of the Caspian. This first
red tidal wive receded In 1S23. but n
orner. starting from Indian thre.- years
later swept through Persia. Astrak
han. Arabia. Palestine. Egypt and Ri:
. sla. whch It first reached In 1S3U. And
from Russia It soon swept into Poland.
Germany. Autrl.i.llui-.garr. Turkey and
finally England, whlctt first saw tha
I grim visitor at Sunderland on October
' -1. 131. Py the next yenr It had
'reacard K0 Inbur h. I.omlonf Ireland
1 and Tarls. During this onrush It had
! carried away' 0tf.w0 reople in li:-3".
and ll England alone 32.SOO died of It
'In 1531-32. In Paris H.Oi'4 died from It
In lJ.. and the same ear It first
. leaped across the Atlantic to ravage the
r ew w orld.
It l"lr-t Com luf to AinrcUa.
In the Spring a dsen Irish Immi
grants brought it to yiielee. Today
every pesible lar.e of travel from that
city into our territory would be guard
ed against such a visitor, but all gates
were open and up the St. Ueirnre the
resttler.ce swept to the 1 j k . whence
It found Its ftrs: entry Into the I'nltrd
' Mat.s at lrtrolt. Here, as 111 luck
would have it. it met a body of our
troops setting out for the liUck Hawk
war. Mary of these soltlters fell vic
tims to t!e new f-e before they could
loave lletrolt. but the greater part
irarhed Fort Dearliorn. Chicago, whence
the epl.b nilc spread to all military
pests and torts farther west, as well as
ilosn the Mississippi to New Orleans,
w ere. starting Us work of death in
Htolr. it claimed i00 out of a popu
la: Ion of ;;.'.
And immigration was to blame for
cur second great pMemlc of IMS. which
r.:me-l 5J.v04 people In Britain, al
though bnusht to our shores by Ger
man tmmlxrant sailing frvra Havre.
They brought It to New Orleans,
whrnre it spread to every landing town
. and city up the Mississippi and Ohio as
. f r as Cincinnati. From St. Lout in
It was carried westward along th
1 route of to argonauts hurrying to Cal
I ttornla and a thousand of them fell
I upon th trail, while hundreds of In
l uaa met en rout iaii th same pen
alty. Again tn "it the same pestilence
ram to as by immigrant ships, this
tlm entering New Tork. from which It
spread In every direction, as far west
as Kansas. And one more tn 1973
aliens carried it to Naw Orleans and
th Mississippi valley.
Every few years sine cholera first
leaped It native bound In India ha th
Old World threatened u with such epi
demics. During a European outbreak in
1X37 24.000 people died of the disease in
Palermo alone, and whil our forty-niners
were giving up their ghost to the sam
destroyer It killed over 51.000 people In
Kris-land and Wales. Other tremendous
dsth tolls have been: England and
Wales. 1S4. 20.000: Constantinople. 155.
ai.000: Ppaln. 1SSS, 91.000: Japan. lSW. 37.
0o: India. 1M7. ti.OfO: Mecca. 1W0. 30.000:
Persia. 132. en. W0; Russia 1W2. 200A':
Japan. 1H5. lS.0rt-. Northern India. 1S9S,
42. MV Philippines. 1SOVJ.000; Egypt. 1902.
14.000.
Sixteen Countries Have It Now.
Since last May- 1 countries acros the
India. Italy. Japan. Java. Netherlands,
I Persia. Roumanla. Philippines, Slam.
Straits Settlements. Turkey and Russia,
t Russia la the blackest center of In
fection, having suffered more than 200.
00 case and some 100.000 deaths sine
early in May. During the first fifteen
week of this Russian epidemic the
deaths totaled 75.000. or an average of
6.000 per week. During the last week
for which Surgeon-General Wyman ha
received return th rate had risen to
7.743 death, which means more than
a thousand a day. St. Petersburg and
Moscow, along with hundreds of other
cities and towns scattered over Rus
sia, have had epidemics on their hands.
In China from three to four thousand
deaths from the same cause occurred in
the vicinity of Swatow tn less than a
month and In the Philippines about
4000 death have been recorded to date.
The other countrle upon Dr. Wyman'
black list show fewer cases, but are
nevertheless feared as possible cen
ters of transmission. On case of
cholera transported from a region
showing but a few scattered victims
might Infect hundreds aboard an Immi
grant ship bound for our shore.
How It Is Kept Front Vs.
l"p on Capitol Hill Snrgeon General
Wyman lta In the atately castle which
General Butler built after the war. and
which his enemies were mean enough
to say was paid for with silver spoon
captured among th booty of battle, in
to this mansion com wires leading in
directly to all home and foreign sea
ports where cholera may enter, and by
these mean the rommander-tn-chlef of
our health guards keeps alwaya In
touch with th officer under his com
mand. Of these. 128 are commissioned
officer appointed by the President,
confirmed by th Senate, and entitled
to wear military uniforms and side
arms, others, to the number of 274.
are " acting assistant surgeons" appoint
ed by the Secretary of the Treasury
under civil service rules.
At Calcutta. Naples. Llbau. Rusrta. and
such portal, where he thinks cholera is
liable to get aboard ehtps bound for
America the Surgeon-General lias sta
tioned one of these officers, whos duty
It Is to pry Into the origin of tha
freight and passengers. If any of the
cargo is from an Infected territory h
must se that It Is fumigated. II
must also Inspect all passengers, es
pecially those booked for the steerage,
and detain those whom he suspects of
contagion. And the ship cannot clear
for on of our port until b give It
a "bill of health" certifying to th
American quarantine officers that no
Infected freight or passengers are on
board. All cholera auspects are de
tained under observation for five days,
after which they may sail on the next
ship, if not developing th dlseaae. At
ports where cholera Is not feared our
Consuls attend to all of this Inspec
tion and detention work a a matter
of routine, and no ship ran sail from
any part of the globe for the I'nlted
States without a clean bill of health.
Nets Set at Our Ports.
Arriving off Its American port, tha
hip is boarded by a quarantine officer
for Inspection. Fifty medical officer
WHAT IS
"0'
if. she's a widow!"
That's what she said. She
said It with an emphaals that
made a person turn and look at her.
She was lovely to look at. having largo
blue eyes and a perfectly prepared
complexion, a lac coat you could
adore and a picture hat with enough
black plumes to make an undertaker
envious. The smsll snd quiet gentle
man who accompanied her tn the ca
pacity of husband looked to b In rath
er poor health, too. But she hadn't any
use for widows whatever.
What la a widow, anyway?
Why. of course, a widow Is a person
who wears a long black veil that is ex
tremely becoming to her beautiful
complexion and Indicates an intention
on her part to fascinate, by foul means
If she cannot by fair. She is a person
who prefer to mix bad medicine for
the haipy home; a person who Joy
ously flirts her eyes at your own dear,
innocent James and thereby lures him
from his rightful allegiance.
"A widow?" chuckle the men. Why.
bless her dear little heart, a widow Is
the very thing they adore. She's a
good fellow, she Isn't alwa; being
shocked like your wife and the girl.
Of course, they forget that having once
had a man about the house It might
take quite a bit to shock her.
She simply loves to have the men
make great ey at her. especially If It
be where It will compromise her repu
tation. She like to have them squeexe
her hand upon Introduction and look
knowingly right Into her eyes. She
simply doles On admiration, you know.
Widows always do. Nobody ever heard
of a widow getting mad at delicate lit
tle attention Ilk those.
And nobody ever heard of a widow
going to her quiet, lonesom room and
putting her head down on th pillow
and crying her heart out because the
rent collector was Insolent. Sii had
th money all ready for him so he
wouldn't have to set foot Inside th
door, but that didn't help much. And
th milkman mad eyes at her and
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of Dr. Wyman' corps are engaged in
this work at 44 separate stations, ex
tending around our coast line from
Alaska to Maine.
The quarantine officer looks the pas
sengers over, giving special scrutiny to
those In the steerage. All passengers
A WIDOW?
asked her what she did for a living
anyway. But, of course, that only
howed a kindly Interest in her affairs.
The laundry man Insists on collect.
Ing instantly and refuses to leave the
ro4.i-(-r
arriving from districts infected with
cholera he detains for five days, and if
cholera has broken out en route h
quarantines all on board for 12 days.
Since the danger from cholera recently
appeared the force of these quarantine
officers has been doubled.
wash unless she la at home because
she Is a widow, and who knows any
thing about her? But her feelings
couldn't be hurt. She doesn't mind the
Imputation. Gracious: Sne'a a widow;
she ought to be used to it by this time.
So when the real estate agent re
fuses to rent to her unlest she can get
a man as reference and then looka
roldly upon her because of the man;
when the pastor's wife calls upon her
I
Should cholera break out in the In
terior of the country. Surgeon-General
Wyman would dispatch officers of his
corps to the acene to .ee that the in
terstate quarantine regulations are en
forced by the state and local author
ities, and to render these 'officials aid
instead of the pastor; when the choir
master's better half accompanies him
ostentatiously to tha meetings of that
musical organization from the time she
becomes a member; when her dearest
chum advises her under no circum
stances to allow an old friend to call
more than once unless they are ready
to announce the engagement, because
people will always talk about a widow,
why, of course, it doesn't hurt her. She's
nothing but a widow anyway.
But, dear me. it is funny how her
heart goes out to the rest of the sister
hood! There's Mrs. McElhern, who scrubs
out the offices and has six children, a
shawl and large shoes that turn up at
the toes.
There is Mrs. Schlimm. the baker
lady, who weighs three hundred and
wears a gfay calico wrapper with a
faint line Indicating where her apron
strings, are forever lost, and whose son
is a scamp who lives upon her earn
ings. There is Mrs. Blavatsky. down the
alley, who sniffles and pins her late
husband's coat across and crooked -i
her thin chest, and whose eldest of five
adds to the precarious comforts of the
family by bringing a basket to your
kitchen for scraps.
There is Aunt Melindy. fat. black
and fifty, who helps In emerget-dles at
the washboard, and Is a widow Just a
lot of times.
There is Mrs. Brown, the bookkeeper
at the laundry, whose cough makes the
lady customers feel queer about the
great white plague and James" shirts.
There Is dear me, what a number
of widows there seems to be, and what
a variety! ' Why, we might . revel In
different sorts of widows; we might
have as many kinds on the list as there
are orphans. We might plunge Info
boundless seas of widowhood, and
emerge on the other side with only a
tiny, tiny notion of the boundless seas
as yet unexplored!
And, honestly, there isn't a naughty
charmer in the lot. There Isn't one
that James would look at In compari
son to the nice, pink wife of his bosom,
who has a new hat when she thinks
she needs K and doesn't have to face
the gas collector by her lonesome; who
wears a diamond ring and maybe pearl
eardrops openly on the streetcars with
out In the least realizing that the
widow across the aisle unprincipled
person Is gazing at these luxuries with
hungry eyes. If she had 'em, they'd
go to the the well, they'd go on de
posit, believe me, and she could pay
two months' rent in advance and
breathe without her heart choking her
when she got to thinking of wnat
might become of the children if she
should be taken sick.
What Is a widow? Well, my dears,
through the "epidemic fund" appro
priated each year by Congress.
At the end of the hall opposite to
Surgeon-General Wyman's office is the
hygienic laboratory of his bureau. In
this, the most complete workshop of
Its kind in the world, all of the cul-
in spite of a rooted distrust, in spite
of the fact that you have been taught
to rely entirely on your feminine in
stincts a. widow i Just what you will
be when James dies.
She Is simply a woman who has been
sheltered and protected and cared for,
to some degree at least, and who has
been left desolate. She is a woman
whose- husband has cared for her, a
little bit anyway, and for whom no
husband cares any more. She is a
woman who has to face the world alone,
and fight it for her babiee.-
Think of it, my dears, when you look
at James, even when you are not so
crasy about James, either. Think how
it would be If James's eyes were shut
I and ne Were lying very still and stately
in the bow window of the parlor,, while
a soft-footed man hovered around and
did the honors of this mournful occa
sion; if the door handle had a streamer
on It, and all your friends and James's
friends and the neighbors, who really
didn't know you, but feel they ought to
pay proper respect, should come In and
tiptoe past the casket and say, "Doesn't
he look natural?"
Picture to yourself the little son that
James adored forgetting that there is
anything much the matter and playing
about in the neighbor's back yard till
the very heart in your breast screams
out to him to try try to remember
that he has no father now.
Picture to yourself the minister,
whom James never liked so much any
way, standing up and saying things
above that white face, while somebody
you don't seem to recognize holds her
self still under a long black veil. And
'presently this person is taken out to
a carriage that follows a black hearse
down the streets "mourners' carriage
first after the pallbearers" and you
know that when you come back James
will still stay away.
Maybe you had your differences, but
you were used to him or, above all,
think how it would be If you loved
James. Everything in the place shrieks
at you of him except his salary. And
you have got to go to work. Tou
don't seem to know Just how, but you
have to, and so you do, and you pay
the rent, and the gas bills, and a wom
an to look after little Jimmy and
how on earth will you make the wages
reach? , '
Maybe, after quite a while of this,
you might not object If a nice man
should ask you to marry him so you
could have a real home and a chance
to keep Jimmy off the streets. And
maybe, after finding that marriage
with a widow who has a child, but no
money, calls for more courage than
most men possess, you might in sheer
lonesomeness conclude that if you could
get James back again you would never
tures taken from cholera, victims and
suspects seeking entrance into the
country during the past few weeks are
examined by Passed Assistant Surgeon
John F. Anderson, the director, who
was trained in bacteriology in Liver
pool and Vienna, before entering the
Federal Service, and who since then
has been immigrant inspector at New
York and sanitary observer at our Con
sulates in eight foreign ports, includ-
,ng London, Liverpool and Vienna.
He examines tne cultures lanen irom
cholera suspects for the "comma bacil
lus" discovered to be the germ of chol
era by the celebrated Professor Koch
and so called because under the miscro
scope it Uoks like the comma of punc
tuation. It is a tiny vegetable ranging
from 12 to 25 mlllionths of an inch in
length, and, like the typhoid germ, is
contracted only through the mouth,
after which it multiplies in the intes
tines, causing death generally within
two days.
be a widow any more. It's a silly
thing, fhls widowhood, anyway.
Tes, that's what is a widow.
Why is a widow? Oh, that's another
question entirely. It is a question
asked by thousands of us women every
day of our lives.
Why is a widow? I'm sure I don't
know. Perhaps the God of the widows
and the fatherless can answer that.
I give it up.
(Copyright, 1910, by Charlotte C. Row
ett.) LONDON EXHIBITION PLAN
Great Manufacturers Display May
. Be Held In 1915.
LONDON, Dec. 10. (Special.) A
scheme has been set on foot for the
holding of a large imperial exhibition
in London in 1915, the aims and objects
of which are more especially to show
what can be produced and manufac
tured within the Empire. The origina
tor of the scheme is Captain Sir Pieter
C. Van B. Stewart-Bam, until recently
senior member for Cape Town in the
Cape Parliament, and he has succeeded
In -getting together an Influential tem
porary committee.
The year 1913 is selected because it is
hoped that a colonial conference will be
held in that year, because the Prince of
Wales will be celebrating his 21st
birthday, and, further, because it will
be the 700th anniversary of the signing
of Magna Carta. Men of all political
parties will take part in the work, and
it is hoped that all parts of the Empire
will be able to compete in a friendly
way to show exactly what can be pro
duced and manufactured by them. In
this way the Empire as a whole will be
able to seeexactly what its manufac
turing and producing powers are.
PIERRE LOTUS HONORED
Autlior Raised to Grade of Com
mander or I.eglon of Honor.
PARIS, Dec. 10. (Special.) Captain
Viaud, better known by his pseudoym,
"Pierre Loti," the novelist and member
of the Academie Francalse, has been
raised to the grade of Commander of
the Legion of Honor.
The collar, which is the badge of the
commandership, was conferred upon
him on board the cruiser Patrie by
Vice-Admiral de Jonquleres. At the
luncheon which' followed the ceremony
Admiral de Jonquleres proposed the
health o the new commander, prefac
ing his remarks by an invocation in the
language of Tahiti, which, he said, had
already been addressed to M. Loti by
voices more gentle and more musical,
though not more friendly.
In his reply. M. Lot! recalled his long
years of comradeship with Admiral da
Jonquleres, beginning in their school
days, and he expressed his regret that,
having retired from the Navy, he would
in all likelihood never again wear naval
uniform in a French warship.
4