Where does the plague come from?

Is the "Ghetto" of Paris an epidemic hotspot?

The plague is in Paris. She didn't come here alone. In recent years, tens of thousands of more or less desirable foreigners have constantly flocked to us and crowded into certain districts of the capital. Have all the precautions required for the defense of public health been taken with regard to these immigrants? Has anything been done, in particular, for the health surveillance of the "ghetto"?

The "ghetto" is this rather lackluster quadrilateral comprised, in the fourth arrondissement, between the streets of Rosiers, Roi-de-Sicile, Vieille-du-Temple and Pavée. There lives a very closed and fairly homogeneous population, of Jews, Slavs and Orientals, who have parked themselves in these three or four streets. Shop signs are written in Yeddish and Russian. We sell Sion wine at the bistro. Paris is a foreign city.

There are, no doubt, a good number of workers and tradesmen who are perfectly honourable, industrious, and have settled permanently in France. But the district is also invaded by a floating population of passing foreigners who come to pile up for a few weeks in excess in the already overcrowded slums. These newcomers come to us after having traveled for weeks, sometimes months, in conditions of cleanliness that are at least dubious. They do not fail to bring in their clothes samples of all the germs in circulation in countries where the precepts of personal and domestic hygiene are still magnificently ignored. |

Precautions are taken, we are told at the town hall of the IV°. Currently only the foreigner able to establish that he will find on his arrival a home where at least one bed is authorized to cross the border. It is still necessary that the air volume of this accommodation is regulatory. Moreover, police surveillance is particularly tight in these neighborhoods. There are still, of course, foreigners who slip through the cracks; but, since the war, it has become very difficult for them to escape control except perhaps with regard to certain allies such as the Poles towards whom we are obliged to have special regard.

"But hygiene?"

“Two services are in charge of it: that of the prefecture of the Seine and that of the prefecture of police.

Only, one cannot, with a wave of the wand, remove the hovel, ventilate the unsanitary dwellings, orient the windows to the South, dry the damp walls...
In a neighborhood like this, there is too much to do. There is only one solution left: the pickaxe.
Well, the pickaxe will come into action. We have already decided to demolish the whole sordid block which is between the rue de l'Hôtel-de-Ville and the quay of the same name. The tenants have been dismissed. It was not without difficulty. However, this is only the beginning...

"So the ghetto?"

— The ghetto is doomed to disappear. in some time. — the houses, at least.

Let us accept the augury.