Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1894 — BLACK DEATH IN CHINA. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BLACK DEATH IN CHINA.

Frlßht'ut Ravacrg of the Plague Among the Celestial*. The fatalities accompanying the plague in the Canton district of China have been terrible, thus far over 120,0< 0 p3op o having perished. In the streets of Hong Kong and other cities the dead were so numerous that they lay on the streets for hours, awaiting the c rlous funeral rites so peculiar to the Chinese. In Canton, says Consul Seymcu-, everything is in wild confusion. Business is almost suspended.

During all of this plague heathen processions have con. tantly marched through the streel s of Canton throughout the night, pounding gongs. sxploding firecrackers, exposing idols, and other similar doings, supported by contributions from the sho s and stores, to propitiate the evil spirits and to dispere the adverse elements. Among its latest victims are Capt. Vesey and two privates of the Shropshire regiment, who caught th a dread disease while engaged in sanitary duties in the Chinese quarter. All three were strong men, but despite the efforts of the doctors they were carried off in a few hours. No treatment that has yet been discovered has had the slightest effect upon the disease, 'lhe death of these men conclusively proves that the plague is not a curse which falls upon Chinese alone, as was at first thought, but is a contagious disorder, if it is not highly infectious. [Numerous orders have been published in the Government gazette enjoining measures, such as whitewash ng and cleaning the drains of their dwellings, but, as might be expected, scarcely’ any notice was taken by the natives, who herd together in Hong Kong under conditions that won d be tolerated in no civilized country in Europe or America. The richer Chinese have left the colony and come to the coast ports, the arrivals at Shanghai alone being often 300 a day. Fully a quarter of the native popu ation has thus fled from the plague-stricken colony.

THE DEAD LYING IN THE STREETS.