Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 October 1878 — Material Effects of the Fever. [ARTICLE]

Material Effects of the Fever.

It is estimated that the actual material loss to the region of country scourged by the yellow fever, thus far, is not less than $200,000,000, and this is, doubtless, a very low estimate. Splendid stands of cotton will be lost for want of hands to pick it, while the cessation of business in cities and towns, and on the railroads and river, has occasioned enormous losses, which cannot now be computed. Beyond expression, this has been a terrible year for the people of the Mississippi valley. Some people talk -in a melancholy way, and express the belief that the South will be utterly, irremediably ruined. That is an impossibility. The South has been swept by the flood, pestilence and the sword, yet has she come out of the depths with a firm step and a hopeful heart. Temporarily crushed the South may be, but destroyed never. There is reason to rejoice that the yellow fever has spread so little east of the Mississippi. It is leaving a broad, black mark from Cairo to the Gulf. It is a terrible mark, to be sure. It is a trail marked by graves. Yet out of the deeps of this woe those communities will come with renewed strength. If it were otherwise, we might indeed abandon hope for the South. The people have too much at stake, and the business of the valley is too great. Its demands will speedily

set all the machinery of trade in motion again. The heart only aches in contemplation of the weeks of death and misery which must elapse before this plague-storm’s horrors ■will vanish.— Louisville Courier-Journal.