Plague Conditions in Mazatlan
The bubonic plague is one of the terrible scourges of the earth. Reports of the plague in Mazatlan, Mexico, have been bad enough, but Americans who have recently come away from there in a chartered vessel say that conditions are worse than reported. Mr. George B. Clark, of St. Louis, who has been exploring in Sinaloa, tells a press correspondent that in the poorer sections of the afflicted city there are no sanitary conditions at all to speak of. And many of the people fleeing from the place drop by the wayside. “In villages some miles away from Mazatlan several cases have been reported, but they are probably due to unsanitary conditions favoring the development of the disease, rather than to spread of infection from Mazatlan. Business has been suspended, drug stores are closed on account of the scarcity of clerks and, to make matters worse, the ignorant and superstitious refuse medical aid and threaten those who attempt even to proffer it. More men than women have fallen victims to the plague, and the dead are buried by prisoners. The latter have been guilty of mutilating the dead. The government authorities are now burning houses in which deaths from plague have occurred and are adopting other hygienic methods. The atmosphere of the whole city is laden with the odor of disinfectants. The people of Mazatlan are greatly in need of help. Many doctors have left the city, and the poor who flee to nearby villages are repulsed.”