Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 September 1878 — THE SOUTHERN PLAGUE. [ARTICLE]

THE SOUTHERN PLAGUE.

Horror* ot the Pestilence at Memphis —The Subtlest Scourge Ev<r Known —Heartrending Scenes. [From the Louisville Courier-Journal.) The following letter from a prominent citizen of Memphis to a commercial house in this city is exceedingly interesting, and contains some facts and topics we have not seen elsewhere. It is written from Camp Joe Williams, four miles south of Memphis : We have had a trying and desperate fight with the fever at this camp, but I begin to feel we have conquered. You can form no idea of the distress. Women in childbirth, surrounded by little ones, quartered in tents, see one by one pass from their sight on to the hospital, thence to the grave. Soon the babe is born, yellow as gold ; the mother lingers a few days, and then she, the last of the household, is put under the ground. We save no women who are attacked. Such as are pregnant miscarry; others, when attacked have premature hemorrhage before the regular monthly period, and there is no cure for such. Yesterday a women and two pretty daughters, of 12 and 16, walked from the train to my tent, and reported for assignment to quarters. From my familiarity with the disease, I at once remarked : “ Why, woman, your two girls have the fever.” The eldest one said: “ No, sir, indeed; I never felt better in my life. I had a little chill yesterday, but am well now.” Her pulse showed 125, temperature 104, eyes glassy, skin puffed, and the whole countenance a beautiful pink. In order to quiet and gratify the' mother, I put up a tent near me for the night Next morning I had them examined, and both were sent to the hospital. I was down/here this noon. The mother is prostrate with nervous prostration and the children lie in the Potter’s field. Just now I toted a fellow to a tent near the hospital. I have had men hunting him all day. He has been dodging us. He swears nothing is the matter with him. His pulse is 135 and temperature 106. H’l is literally burning up. He will be dead by noon to-moirow.

There are fresh arrivals. We have 400 who have been out from the city sufficiently long to be regarded safe. We are building houses and establishing a new camp to which all who have been beyond the infected districts ten days will be removed. If no more arrive we will be able to say we have snatched from certain death 455 souls. The camp is laid out in streets ; each tenement is numbered, and a complete register is kept of every inmate. New arrivals occupy a street called Quarantine square. We have quartermaster, commissary, undertaker, physician, purveyor and military force. We have a large warehouse and brick oven, souphouse, and every appointment the emergency suggests. This disease is yellow fever, or is, in fact, the malarial fever of this coast, intensified by the introduction of ship or Asiatic fever. It is the most subtle scourge the world has experienced, and l affles all medical experience. A person of intelligence, when first attacked with the malarial symptoms, if he be administered to at once with the usual treatment, wrapped up in blankets and nursed carefully, may pull through. None but the rich can, in times like the present, command special attention. The masses are treated by the wholesale, and all alike. Few recover. The first symptoms are heaviness and a slight chill, then suppression of the urine, puffed face, glassy eye, beautiful flushed skin, pink eye-lids, pulse 120, temperature 103 to 106. Soon vomito begins, which is simply a slight hawking sound and spitting of a coffee-ground substance from the stomach, which sinks to the bottom of the vessel. The patient, after each emission, feels well, and would get up if allowed. No pain, no evidence of concern, either by look or action. The pulse begins to run down to 90, 80, 70, 50, 40; then comes the pinched nostril and mechanical breathing. They sit up; want to get up; are induced to lie down, and quietly pass away. Thursday night, as I was making the rounds, I saw a woman returning from the infirmary with a vial of medicine. It was sprinkling a little. She went in her tent, lit a candle, and lay down. In a few moments I heard an alarm. Women and children were running wild about that portion of the camp. 1 hastened there, when my eyes beheld a most heart-rending sight. This woman’s babe, 9 mouths old, was crying on its mother’s breast, and she was dead. The child was cared for, the mother taken away, and the tent burned with its contents.