The Morning Star And Catholic Messenger

HEALTH. Nearly the middle of July and no yellow fever, is a good indication for the season. Rumors are said to be current in the West that the epidemic is here already, which goes to prove the equivocal reputation that our city enjoys. Without a shadow of foundation in fact, rumors of this nature are received with but little hesitation. This may appear at first glance to be merely a subject of amusement, but in some respects it may be a rather costly one.

Thousands of most valuable citizens have, no doubt, been lost to New Orleans, and will again be lost, merely from the apprehension of a series of epidemics.

It will be long before the country at large can be convinced that New Orleans is, or ought to be, as safe from this visitation as New York. The fever is not indigenous in either place, but it can be, and often has been, imported into both. The reign of Gen. Butler in this city, though looked back to with horror by everybody, was, like other scourges of Providence, not without its profitable side. His military occupation of the place and that of his successors, while laying an embargo on all trade and intercourse, rendered the quarantine completely operative. It was not only respected at quarantine stations, but maintained by a gleaming bayonet on every avenue of approach to the city.

This having been demonstrated, it is evidently our own fault if our reputation of immunity from yellow fever does not become well established. The authorities have not only that reputation and the commercial advantages thence derivable, but the safety of thousands of our citizens in their hands. They ought to be inexorable about it. The quarantine of a long and watchful care ought to be as effectual as the embargo of tyranny and hate. If passengers are allowed to escape from a ship and come to the city in oyster boats or fishing smacks or even on foot, they may bring the fatal virus in a more direct and dangerous form than though the ship and cargo were permitted to approach the wharves.

The masters of all vessels from infected ports ought to be held responsible for the daily presence on board their craft of every person they brought across the bar.