Rensselaer Union, Volume 3, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 June 1871 — Stricken by a Pestilence. [ARTICLE]

Stricken by a Pestilence.

Our neighboring city of Buenos Ayres is suffering from a terrible pestilence. OaFebruary 1 the yellow fever broke out in the northern part of the city, but did not create any alarm at first, as during the entire month the average mortality was only about twelve a day. On March 1 there were 35 fatal cases, and the number gradually increased, reaching 204 on the 18th, and 337 on the 28th. On Saturday, one week ago to day, there were 501 interments ; on Sunday 749 bodies were counted at the. cemetery gates, and the daily average mortality for the week has been 450. The total number since the scourge began is over 12,000. --—- Rich andjoor are alike stricken with the malady, Families have been broken up and scattered. In some instances husbands have abandoned their dying wives, mothers have left their children to die alone, and in many cases whole families have been swept away. As many as five or six corpses have been discovered in a single house. A new cemetery has been opened in the campo south of the city, and a tram railroad laid to it. The bodies are carried out on the trucks, packed like freight. There is no time to construct coffins, and the stock on hand was long since exhausted. In some Instances the undertakers have tied from the terrible harvest of business that the pestilence has caused. The population of the city, which ten weeks ago numbered at least. 200,000 souls, is now reduced to 40,000. About 150,000 have fled their homes, some taking refuge in Montevideo and the towns up the Parana River, but the larger portion are in the campo, within a distance of from ten to fifty miles of Buenos Ayres. The miserable mud huts of the peasants in the districts have been besieged with tenants from among the wealth and aristocracy of the republic, and in some cases are Receiving from $l5O TO SSOO per month rent Families who lived in luxury two mouths ago are now cowering among these mud huts and sleeping on beds laid upon the floor of earth. Those who remain in the city are mostly of the poorer class, who have not the means to leave, and the Public Comuiission, a philanthropic association, organized for the emergency, is now proposing to send away on the railroad such as are not yet affected by the fever. This commission, consists of some 800 members, many of great wealth and' good position. Several of them have already been sacrificed to their self-imposed duty, but the work is carried on nevertheless. The commission has supreme control over everything in the doomed city, and has just proclaimed a fast of twenty days. This has been resolved upon to prevent financial disasters or embarrassments among the commercial houses, consequent upon the total stagnation of business. Of course all notes, drafts, bills of exchange, and maturing commercial paper of every description are in’ abeyance during that time, and the proclamation of the fast, in fact, prohibits business or labor of every kind. On the 12th, the bank of London ami the Rio de la Plata Closed its doors, and will not resume business until the end of the month. A quarantine has been established on all river towns, and for all prac-ticable-purposes Buenos Ayres is shut out from the world. About twice a week local vessels leave this port to convey to Buenos Ayres the mails and hospital supplies; but no person or thing, not even a letter, is permitted to be brought back, and the only communication the people of the unhappy city can have with us is by telegraph. A few days since even telegraphic communication was irregular and very uncertain, as some of the operators at the other end of the line died, and their places could not be filled readily. There is much division of opinion as to the origin of the fever, but it is pretty well settled that it was brought in an Italian emigrant ship which arrived from Genoa and Barcelona in January last. As to the cause of the spread and ravages of the disease, any one who has ever been in Buncos Ayres can readily see. The city is built on the flat shore of the river, is without any system of drainage whatever, and for nearly two hundred years the inhabitants have buried all filth, garbage and refuse matter of every description beneath their houses. This was done by sinking cellar shaped wells to a depth of fifteen or twenty feet, the sides being straightened with rude brick work. These were reached by small openings at the surface several feet in depth, and through these apertures the filth was deposited in' the cess-pools below. When the sinks became full the mouth was filled up, and a new cesspool was dug elsewhere. The system prevailed everywhere throughout the city, and to day Buenos Ayres is honeycombed by these filthy traps. —Montevideo (April 15) Cor. N. Y. Sun. ■■■ ’ • About a year ago some half dozen couples of boys and girls, belonging to the most respectable families of Elmira, N. Y., endM a frolic by being married, probably “ for fun, ” agreeing to keep it secret, and returning home to their parents. About these days the secret is being discovered, and the childlen are finding out that marriage audits consequences is no joke.