Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 August 1873 — The Ravages of the Cholera in Mount Vernon, Indiana. [ARTICLE]

The Ravages of the Cholera in Mount Vernon, Indiana.

To give you some idea of the min that has followed close upon the heels of tins “Demon of the Ganges,” I will cite a fcW of the nfore prominent families that it Has visited. In a family named Bell, two are left alive out of seven persons; in one named Ilovey, relations of General Ilovey, two died; in that of Slicldens, four deaths; in that of the Woodeys, proprietors of tlie foundry, tlie utmost havoc was made. One of tlie proprietors died with it; in Ids brother’s family, a wife and two children were buried, and so great was die excitement and fright that I am told the husband had to prepare the bodies for the tomb. In their father’s family all hut two were buried. These are individual cases. But I failed to find a single person who lias not had cholera symptoms more or less violent in their effects. Every house is -pervaded With odors of disinfectants; every person smells of asafeetida and camphor; cherub-looking children give out this nauseating smell from their garments. Certainly it would seem that everything possible has been done to stay tlie disease. Ilosin, pine tar, and coal were burned by orders of tlie Board of Health, so that one could feel tlie heat all over tile place, but in spite of all preventives and science, for ten days tlie plague carried of its victims. From my room at midnight, I could hear the noise of funerals. You cannot understand to-what-extremities the citizens and families have been driven. Medical ant was -Insufficient: —Tire-does, tors could not be at all places at all times, and many have died who might have been saved had it been possible to have treated them tlie instant the disease came upon them. Yet the physicians have all acted heroically, with a single exception, whose leaving witli his family has excited a storm of imlignatiom=Jlnt up till to-day. lie had worked hard.- For ten days the doctors had had scarcely any rest, and been-busy in going from house to house, for every dwelling almost had its cholera patients. Scarcely a business house was open to-day ; the streets were deserted, tlie banks closed, and tlie depot thronged with citizens fleeing for their lives from the city. I think at least 700 persons have left to day alone. People living in tlie lower land, or flats, and who have been unable to leave, have removed to store-rooms and warehouses, where they are living, Snd hoping 'to escapeTße itisease. New cases were reported to-day, hut the general belief is that the disease has reached its height; at least the symptoms of tlie new patients are reported as less violent and much milder than those of two days ago. One. singleJact remains .to. he cited, and that is, there is seemingly no reason for this infliction of the pestilence. The town has had the reputation of being as healthy as Evansville, and one of the most healthy in Southern Indiana. The adjoining tracts are not swampy, and tlie bluff on which a part of the city is built is the highest between Evansville and Cairo. Some attribute it to tlie use of well-water; but every house lias a cistern, from which tlie water for cooking, and: drinking is obtained,—and the water of. wells was probably used here less even than in other places. It is certain, however, that it came in spite of cleanliness and the application of scientific truths, and in its track death of the most hideous type has followed, ami a town deserted as though a hurricane had borne away its inhabitants. — Mount Venvoi {July 10) Cor. JZmnsville Journal.