Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 September 1892 — THE FELL DESTROYER. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE FELL DESTROYER.

THE RAVAGES OP CHOLERA IN EUROPE AND AMERICA. History of the Greet Beeairing CpUwnU at Asiatic Cholera From Its Hem*' la Cho Heat of Indie to Our Own Pease Xho Present Outbreak and Its Coaiee,

Tla a Dreadful Hoourge. When Death sought for a weapon to scourge the world Cholera was found. Horror cannot find words to tell all the tele of what that pestilence, that plague has done to the earth. Swift, loathsome, unerring in Its fatality, It haa moved nations and. continents to grief more powerfully than anything else slnoe the epidemics of the bla ck death In the middle ages. Bora to a cradle of Asiatic filth, where millions crowd one another for life, it haa grown until Europe and America have shrank from It, and only when satisfied bee it withdrawn to Its den. Then, after a rwt 1* haa emerged again to spread renewed terror through the world. Often has this been repeated, It Is beginning now In the same way. 'Whether the end will be ea terrible cannot ba told. If It Is America la to suffer with the rest of the world. America has ■ever yet escaped when the scourge crossed the Caucasus into Europe. True Asiatic cholera originated in Hlndosten, and that country has neveg.been absolutely free from It. Greece suffered from epidemics introduced from Indie 409 years before Christ, and noted Greek physicians, Are tarns, Galen, Oaellnt, Anrellanua, and Orabaslus, of the first three oratories of the Christian era, described every symptom of the disease minutely. Dr. J. 0. Peters, writing In the “American Encyclopedia,” takes the ground that tha epidemics are periodical, returning every twelve years at the occasion of the great Juggernaut festival. Tha outbreak la London In 1669-72 was not Asiatic cholera, hut a milder form that often visits Individual cases without infecting others. When the French and English struggled for the Coromandel ooast of India repeated epidemics were noticed near Madras and Pondicherry In connection with tha great Hindoo pilgrimages The year 1784 murks tha recognition of periodical returning twelve-yearly epidemics, connected with the great twelve-yearly Hindoo festivals at the great temples Tha recurrences were In 1756, 1768 and 178 L The Scourge of 1781. March 22, 1781.5,000 English troops, nndor Col Pearse, marching near Ganjarn. not far from the great temple of Juggernaut, and very shortly after the huge twelveyearly festival had taken place, Were attacked with the disease very suddenly and with inconceivable fury, after camping on loul pilgrim grounds and drinking polluted water. Men previously healthy dropped down by dozens and those less severely affected were generally past recovery la twenty-four hours. Besides those who had died there were 500 on the sick list tha first day, and In two days more nearly 8,000 were affected.- This epidemic was carried by returning pilgrims up to Calcutta and down to Madras Three times twelve, or thirty-six, years subsequently the great historical epidemic of 1817 occurred. This proceeded up the Ganges as far as Allahabad, when It was deflected southward to the provinoe of Bundelcund, In which the Marquis of Hastings was carrying on war against tha Mah,rattas with 90,000 men. Of the natives 10,000 had already died In Allahabad, and many others had joined the army as camp followers, among whom tha disease' crept about for several days, until a sufficient number of foci had been developed for It to burst forth with Irresistible fury In every direction. The natlvos deserted In great numbers, and the highways and fielda for many miles around wefe strewed with tha bodies of those who had fled tilth tha dls-

*4Sf 3p3u them. The encampments and lines of march of the army presented most deplorable spectacles. Hundreds of soldiers dropped down In every day’s advance and on every night's halt, so that the whole presented the appearance of successive battlefields and the truck of an array retreating' under' every circumstance of defeat and discomfiture. In two weeks 9,000 men succumbed to the pestilence. A subsidiary force coming up from the south to co-operate with Hastings afforded the second striking Instance of a large body of men In high health coming Into a pestilential region and falling at once Into a wretched state of •tckaosa Seventy cases and twenty deaths occurred the first day, and many were attacked while loitering for water at contaminated' springs and rivulets. How the Pestilence Spread. * Other re-enforcements were advancing fjrom. Jiotubay In the southwest, and the Course of the disease had long been so regular along the line of much-traveled roads ■ and U>e marches of troops that the Bombay authorities prepared for It when It wan many, hundreds of miles off. Step by step the disease could be traced, marching from town to town and creeping from village to village, by the arrival of persons afflicted with it from places where It was known to prevail,' From Bombay It was carried up to Basscrah, t.t the bead of the Perslaa Golf, where 18,000 persbns died In eighteen days, and from there along the Hirers Euphrates and Tigris to Bagdad. Damascus, Aleppo, and the Mediterranean coast, where it also faded away In 1821. Every successive epidemic of cholera hap always been carried up the Peralaa Golf from Bombay, Surat, Kurrachee end other ports on the western coast of India, and thus reached the Mediterranean, Black and Caspian Seas and neighboring countries by the so-called Persian Gulf route In the Jtopbay,.presidency are ninetyfour shrijrfsto) wKlctttforge pilgrimages are made, ami ’.frofib which ' the disease la broughtyto fhflLsea acast In India the epldemffifeof 18lr?sftrdad In every direction with the march of armies, pilgrims, merchants and travelers, often In the face of contrary, winds agfcdr-m on soons, although the ppeed.of. Its progress was accelerated favoring wlhds, which forced along vessels containina the diseaso. This epidemic nnd that of 1781 were distinctly Juggernaut pilgrim choleras, and for years after there was a repetition of the old story, “Cholera in Calcutta; the Pilgrims at Juggernaut Suffering Severely." More Pilgrimage Chelera. , In 1826 the first Indications of another pestilence appeared In the north of .Indio. Epidemic cholera broke out at Huidwas. the great place of pilgrimage at'the source

mt the Gang**. where It first ieeuee from the foot of tht Himalaya Mountain*. A few hand red thousand pilgrims go to Hozdwar •aery year, more every third year, still more every sixth and ninth years, and folly £,006,830 assemble eVery twelfth year, and a waste# number every sixtieth year. From Hurdwar cholera was Carried back by the huge caravan* which came down to the festival from Cerural Asia. Persia, and Then the disease advanced over the great Northwest Central Asiatic caravan route Busalaf' Also by

«*A AaftrnkhM to September, from OrenbraE lt proceeded due west to NUnl NovjpnM and Moscow. From Astrakhan it advanced step by step up tha Volga toward tob atone places Until the stream which Bad flcwad'th rough Central Asia to Western Bnada and Orenburg farmed a junction with that.which had entered Southern Rusatafeanttee northern provinces of Persia. Trom Moscow,the disease was distributed all over Northern' and Western Russia, especially to Riga, on the Baltic, from which • abrty <)* seventy English coal vessels fied to haste, carrying the 'scourge to Snndstland and Newcastle In England. At tel* fins the great Polish revolution of lfi3fi-81 was going on. and Russian troops carried the disease to Warsaw, whence It was conveyed Ana west to Posen and Ber-

lln, and from there to Hamburg and over to London. This attack of‘the cholera reached the United States where Its course trill be tracbd later. One That Beached This Country. Thfpext great twelve-yearly epidemic commenced in Lower Bengal In 1841. It advanced over India to the northwest provinces, was supplemented by a Hurdwar epidemic in 1843, and was found In Afghanistan In 1844. In Persia and Meshed In 1848, advancipg west In 1846 to Teheran, and up between the Black and Caspian Beat toward Southern Russia, reaching Astrakhan July 30, 1847. Tha Austrian* Hungarian, and Russian armies Contending In Hungary In the spring and summer of 1840 became the principal center and focus of tbe disease, whence It Spread with terrible Virulence Into Poland and Germany. ,i The next great twelfth-yearly epidemic

commenced In India In April, 1865. By means nf railroads and steamboats It reached Mecca on tlie Red Feu b 7 May 2. In Alexandria June 2 cu«es wore frequent. From there It was Carried by steamships to Smyrna. Constantinople, and up the Black Sea, to Malta, to Ancona In Italy, to Marseilles, Gibraltar, Barcelona, Algiers, Tunis, and Southampton in England, by the steamship "Poona by July 10, with 120 cases of cholera by July 24, i But more especially the disease was conveyed up through France, from Marseilles to Paris and Emigrant ships quickly transported it then to-America.

This present cholera epidemic Is twentyfour years since the one just described and there has been one intervening one. The last one bogan at the stated twelve-year time, but was slow In reaching Europe and was not permitted to reuch this country. In, ; 1884-85.1 t reached France, particularly Toulon and Marseilles, Naples, Italy and Spain, but did not spread farther. The outbreak which reached Europe In 1848-49 was' ex-: ceedlngly fatal, 58,293 persons dying la England and Wales in those years from the scourge, and 29,097 in 1854. How the Cholera Came to America. When the cholera has reached America it bas never been with any decrease In Its virulence. But while the nation was youngest the first epidemics did not reach us. The first One to attack America was that whfc:h started at the Hurdwar pilgrimage of 1802. After It had reached Europe and raged there and In England. Ireland, and Scotland during 1830 and 1831 It was conveyed by ten or twelve 1 Irish emigrant ships to Quebec in the spriDg of 1832. From there it went up the St. Lawrence River and across the lakes to Detroit, where it met the United States troops going to the Black Hawk war. In a short time the whole force sent by way of the lakes was rendered Incapable of taking the field. Soma were left behind, but the greater part reached Chicago In a deplorable con-

dition. One company which had teen mustered and Inspected days before without a man on the sick list, had dropped forty-seven men ‘out of seventy-eight iu that short time. .. One regiment lost more than 230 men In a week. It was generally believed that the Infection was contracted by the soldiers on the steamboats, which had been previously engaged In transporting emigrants westward from Montreal and Quebec. The army surgeons agreed In asserting that previous to the arrival of these steamboats not a case had been observed In Chicago. It was distributed to all the national forts and posts in the West, including Fort Dearborn, Fort Crawford, near Prairie dn Chlen, and Fort Armstrong, at Bock Island. From there the pestilence was carried down the Mississippi to New Orleans, by October, 1832. Surgeon General Lawson says: “One fact Is certain. No case of cholera occurred In New Orleans until after the arrival of steamboats with cases of chelera on board, and after a number of their passengers had died of it Six thousand died out of a population of SS.MA* • ■ <-• }■ The epidemic also spread from Buffalo, reaching New York City June 27. Between tbat dgte and Oct. 1 the deaths in the city numbered 3,400. Albany suffered heavily. Just as the scourge was leaving New York H broke out ip Philadelphia and 1.000 died. The victims in baltimor3 and Washington numbered about the same. Cincinnati was la the power of the plague until the middle

of the next year. In the Southern States the slave population suffered terribly. St Louis was one of the worst afflicted cities The New England States escaped with but a few cases When the United States Suffered. The epidemic that began in Bengal In 1841 and reached the United States by way of Havre and New Orleans at the end of 1848 was a bitter one for this country. The ship Swanton. which brought It, had thirteen deaths'Wh board during the voyage nnd sent‘six cases on shore at New Orleans Dr. Fenner says that after the disease bad once commenced In New Orleans almost every vtssel or steamer leaving the pity bad twenty or thirty cases aboard. Thus persons having cholera and dying with It

were carried to all the landing towns and cities of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers as .high as Cincinnati. From St Louis It was carried over* the emigrant route to San Frunclsto. More than 1,000 emigrants died on,thff> trail, and many Indians who loitered’ along from curiosity or for tho purpose of begging paid a terrible penalty. It reached New York In May, 1849, and spread violently, The deaths from cholera In one week In July in the city alone were 70(1 Boston had apout 600 fatal cases , ; .durlng the summer. It wus most terribleTu .Cincinnati and St Louis, the deaths In, each of those cities numbering about dO3O. The third day of August war, lu view of , the terrible scourge thus stalking mightily over the broa£ land, ■ appointed by the President of the'United States as a day of fasting and .of prayer, that God would “avert the pestilence that walketh In darkness and the destruction that wasteth at noonday.” In 1883 and 1866 were other visitations of the cholera upon-America. The latter was tho worst,- -It had arrived In New York In November. 1885, by the steamer Atlanta, but had been successfully quarantined. In April, 1866. an emigrant ship came In with thirty-one cholera dead. The 20th of the same month the emigrant ship England arrived with-Gso> passengora. She had started with 1,200, buton the way over 250 had died of cholera. Ten days after the arrival of the England the first case broke out In New York. Before July 31 there had bean 87 fatal cases In New York lind 112 In Brooklyn On that day the disease broke out In full fury, 53 new cases were reported, and of tnese 37 died almost at once In the next ten days there were more than 500 doaths In New York and Brooklyn. The epidemic lasted through September, and In New York and Brooklyn there wore 1.600 deaths Spreading the Pestilence. Fr.ui! New York It was distributed In every direction over the United States by railroads and steamboats, even as far west as tbe Smoky Fork River In Kansas, to Forts Riley and Harker, und to the new town Of Ellsworth, then only six weeks old. because soldiers, railroad laborers, and others from Infected districts brought the disease to thq new line of railroad then building. .'“ ,r ' On' the'Bth or 10th of July, 1832, the

steamer Sheldon Thompson arrived lat Chicago from Buffalo, having ou board Gen. Scott, bis stuff, and four companies of troops. With them came tho Asiatic pest The sojourners In the port flefi In haste and terror. The residents of \the village, as far as possible, also went awjay, some going to Grosse Point and otherJto Laughton's or Wentworth’s. By tho 12th 'fheiylllaitfei.’wtis virtually depopulated, land »as.glvep-ower to. the sick, dead and (dying, and--those whom duty compelled qr humanity Urged to remain to minister to thofnf >; hiss > -July 18 another steamer arrived VlMi anotheti detachment of cholera-stricken soldiers. The flight of the Inhabitants confined tbe ravages of the pest to} the soldiers, officers and their families. Dulrlng the ten days succeeding Gem Scott's;' arrival a hundred dead soldiers were car lued

out from the gates of the garrison and-laid to rest in a common grave, without isoffm or shroud. They were burled at a point where Is now the northwest corner of Lake street and Wabash avenue. This attack was ended about the 20th of July. \ America Must Be Prepared, f America dare not hope that no ca< es of cholera will reach the shores of this'continent from the frightful epidemic thfat is raging In the East The only question Is as to the ability of our health officers to keep the cases quarantined and so exterminate the disease. always cholera in India. J,lt begih tbere before htttory, and has bsderne a very part of the land and clviUzat|nn. Its seeds are in tho earth, and Its brajhtb is in the air. Its sway is undisputed- by the

awarmta: t**ple. lie down at Its com. JSSmdiewUnout effort .or protest against The hot sun and the humid, feverish atmosphere have much to do with lte unchecked presence and occasional vloks but the civilization of the ora superstition and unclean. lfiMun d Mevall t 0 an almo9t unbelievable extend The cities and towns of the Indianhills are undrained, unwatered and fllthv Tbe people live In a state of degradation which appeals more strongly to the nose than to the eyes. Under such conditions the plague thrives and fattens upon vlctifill The epidemic which reached us In 1866 received Its impulse from tbe Hurd war festival and at tbe same festival began the nresent epidemic, notwithstanding the attemnts of the authorities, grown wiser after centuries, to check the growth and spread of the pestilence which Inevitably accompanied Epl<l<smlo

A jt <s difficult to follow the present epl“ demlc In the East with anything like particularity. owing to the scanty report sent by the cable There was an outbreak of more than usual violence In Syria last summer. It devastated many small villages. Tho reports made by Spiradon C. Zavltziano, tho government correspondent at Constantinople, show that from June. 1891, to February, 1892, there were 6,461 deaths In four provinces This induced the Turkish Government to erect new lazarettos, and the Russian Government established strict quarantines on the ports of the Black Sea. Meanwhile the plague appeared with unusual violence In the villages of Northern India and with the impulse of tbe Hurdwar festival soon became a raging epidemic. The pilgrims and the Provlndahs scattered It broadcast. We began to hear of It In May. At that time tho district of Srinagar, tn the extreme north of India, was the center of the plague. There wore 1.600 deaths there In one week. All work In tho country districts was suspended. The Ignorant and superstitious people felt that a judgment was on thorn and made no attempt to stay Its ravages. Hundreds were taken sick daily and lay down by the roadside or In the fields to die. The dead were lert unburied In thu blazing sun, and tho stench became borible. The capital of the district, the city of Srinagar, took fire and burned to tbo ground. The Inhabitants, without food or clothing, took to the country to Increase the awful misery there. An attempt was made to help them from Lahore, but It resulted In carrying the cholera there, with hundreds of deaths Srinagar was one of tho filthiest cities of India. Between May 6 and Juno 11 5,000 of its population of 124,000 died of cholera. There were 208 deaths May 25, The dead were seldom burlod.

In April tho cholera began Its westward march from India to the Caspian sea. It had laid waste a large territory of Northern India. It crossed the Indus and Invaded Afghanistan. Cabul was attacked, with frightful loss of life, and then Herat, where, In spite of the abundant water In and around the city, the camps of the pilgrims and traders gave a mighty Impetus to Its spread. The villager along the caravan

routes between these two cities were attacked, and tbo plague spread north and south through tho country districts, From Herat it wont northwest to the holy city of Meshed, the Mecca of many Eastern principalities. There Its devastation was terrible. For weeks the deaths averaged over 100 daily. It Is still raging there, the last reports being that It was on the decrease, tho daily dentil roll having dropped to thirty-five. Still westward the cholera traveled In the wake of the caravans. It attacked Sulvzabar and other towns, and In a few days it reached Asterabad, on the Caspian sea. Its ravages here and lh the neighboring provinces were very great Its appearance at Asterabad alarmed the Russian authorities and all the Russian ports on the Caspian were closely quarantined. There Is a considerable trade between Asturabad and Astrakhan, at the month of the Volga. Its Ravages In Rnssla. In May tbe cholera crossed the Caspian, in spite of all precautions, and Invaded Baku, a Russian seaport just south of the Caucasus Mountains. It is the groat petroleum port of the Caspian and filthy beyond description. The cholera was now in Europe, and it spread rapidly. The authorities, much alarmed, bent all their energies toward keeping It from Astrakhan, the port at the mouth of the Volga. But they were unsuccessful The cable reported that the Russians wore too demoralized to carry out the requirements of these schedules. About the middle of July a riot was occasioned in Saratov by the report that the doctors In the hospitals were burying cholera patients alive. It Is reported that 150,000 deaths front cholera have occurred In Russia this summer up to date. To that long roll of mortality should be added 35,000 in Fersla, up to a week ago, and an unknown but large number In Turkestan and other Asiatic countries, besides several hundreds per day In Hamburg and scores dally In each of not a few cities In Germany and France, The total up ts date can hard’ly be less than 300,000 doaths, and may exceed that figure, while there Is yet room sot a further swelling of the list before the activity of the cholera germs Is destroyed by the advent of frost. The most encouraging news received In relation to the scourge Is that It has apparently nearly run Its course at Teheran, In Persia, the daily mortality there having decreased from 600 to 200. The news from Russia is not sufficiently explicit to warrant a similar hope for the cities of that country for some time longer, though it should be remembered that information from that quarter Is generally tardy, so that the disease might be fairly under control before we would have an Intimation that Its ravages had been checked. The great thing to be wished for now is colder weather. If the cholera-smitten regions were visited by a chilly wave, there would bo good reason to believe that the worst was over, and the pest would quickly cease to kill

THE NEW YORK QUARANTINE STATION.

INSTITUTING THE INCOING PASSENGERS.

CHOIERA RIOTS IN ASTRAKHAN—A RUSSIAN DOCTOR BURNED ALIVE.

HAD SHOWING THE CHOLERA INFECTED DISTRICTS OF EUROPE.

THE CHOLERA BACILLUS— MAGNIFIED 5,000 TIMER

“ALL BAGGAGE AET FOR FUMIGATION.”