"CITY OF DEATH" FIGHTS CHOLERA
SIAN, Shensi Province, China, Aug. 23. (/P)—This trade cross-road Asia has become a city of death in the throes of a cholera epidemic
is taking an average toll of 100 lives every day.
This historic center of trade between China and Asia proper has been suffering from the summer scourge of the orient for many weeks, and her
1,000,000 inhabitants are still making every effort to conquer the emergency.
The city streets—the same ones Marco Polo looked upon centuries ago —lie under a blanket of snow-white substance. It is powdered lime, sprinkled about generously in an effort to halt the ravages of disease.
Weather May Help.
The weather is now slightly cooler and it is hoped that the peak of the epidemic has been reached. Many thousands have been inoculated against cholera, but the serum supply appears to be piteously inadequate. Native and foreign mission doctors are exhausting themselves
carrying on their work of mercy. Their efforts have undoubtedly saved many, but appear hopeless in this wave of sickness, suffering and death.
The cholera scourge made its first appearance this year in China in the vicinity of Shanghai just after the Sino-Japanese hostilities. Thereafter
a heat wave, and serious floods in major river valleys served to give it impetus.
Hardly any part of China has escaped. Canton suffered from floods. The cholera has been widespread along the Yangste and Yellow river valleys, as well as further westward in Shensi.