Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 October 1878 — Memphis—Scenes in that Desolate City. [ARTICLE]

Memphis—Scenes in that Desolate City.

The Memphis correspondent of the Chicago ZVthtrae writes as follows, under date of Sept 22: Whether one sits in bis honae or wanders about the deserted streets, he sees death in every direction, from which there Is no escape. The epidemic of 1873 was thought to be a visitation of unparalleled magnitude. But those who bore the brunt of that struggle speak of it as a holiday in comparison with tbe epidemic of 1878. There is only grief apparent everywhere to-day; for those who fled the city when the crisis came, as also those who remained, have lost relatives and friends promlscuo; sly. Tbe horn re of the plague have Invaded the cottages of the poor and the palaces of tbe rich in equal proportion. The poor have not been called to bear the burden alone. Rich men escaped contact with the pestilence by flight, but they left an heritage of infamy more to be dreaded than the narrow hole in the ground which contains all that was left of the victims -es disease, —One of the daily pa pers struck a popular chord the other day when It denounced as a curse to Memphis greater than the plague itself those fugitives who have not contributed one dollar in money or one word of sympathy to aid and encourage the men fighting the greatest epidemic in the history of the city. And it Is true. One man, whom I hear of dally, Is absent at an Eastern watering-place, and from the rents of squares of buildings on Main street contributed an Insignificant sum. This, with the promise that when the Howard Fund reached a certain limited amount, he would replenish the exchequer with a further donation.

REPULSIVB SCENES. Latterly the mortality has been proportionately greater among the colored population than with their Caucasian brethren, and In* these cases the repulsive scenes which characterized the epidemic when at Us beignt are duplicated. During the past week a physician, while on his rounds, had bis attention attracted to the Gayoso House by evidences of life within this former celebrated caravansery, and, visiting the premises, found it peopled with nearly a hundred African patients In all stages of disease. Age, sex and condition were commingled together, some In the last stages of dissolution, others manifesting the initiatory symptoms of the disease, and others beyond recovery, without medical attendance or attention, and in a fair way tq resolve the establishment into a charnel nouse. ; He, of course, reported the condition of affairs at once, and measures were taken to remedy the evils, which. It permitted to continue, would with all Its horrors. Another physician was called to visit a family of colored sufferers residing on the outskirts of tbe city. The family was composed of the parents and several children, ranging In age from majority to infancy. They were the poorest of the poor, with nothing to alleviate their disease with which all of them were down. He did what he could for the unfortunate family, who were penned up in a narrow, cloee, unventilated apartment, and while making his investigation, discovered that one of the daughters, about twenty years of age, had been dead for several hours, and was fast being resolved Into a mass of corruption, breeding a nuisance insufferable, and filling the entire neighborhood with the seeds of disease. He was the only person present who was free from the prevailing complaint, and was obliged to canvass the neighborhood through a blinding storm for help to effect a removal of the corpse. After a prolonged and almost fruitless effort, he procured the services of a neighbor, with whose assistance tbe body was rolled up in a sheet, taken to an outho' se and left until the storm ceased, when a rough grave was prepared and the body interred without a priestly benediction.

LACK OF BURIAL FACILITIES. The difficulty experienced in procuring prompt burial has by no mean* been remedied, and funerals are kept waiting for graves to be opened. The coflui is removed from the hearse in many instances to enable Chat mortuary vehicle to till another appointment, and the relatives, often without a clergyman to perform the sail rites of the burial service, are oWtged to wait until the. last resting-place of a departed parent, son, daughter, brother, or sister is prepared. The same rule applies in regard to the services of an undertaker. His engagements are so in advance of his ability to execute them that it ia by no means unusual fqr a body to be kept forty-eight hours before being coffined. Last Thursday a man named McGregor, who possessed some local fame as a Spiritualist and necromancer, died suddenly, and notwithstanding the efforts made In that behalf, lie remained unburied until yesterday, decomposition meanwhile having taken place, and creating a panic if not new case* in tta.vlclliity of his residence. As heretofore stated, the jumpers are buried-by the municipal authorities, and no time, by reason of the exigencies of the case, is wasted in getting them out of sight. Many a mournful drama from real life is enacted among the worthy poor, and if ever a history of the epidemic is written it will be fruitful with touching reminiscences of the dark days that now hang about the Cttr on the Bluff. One came under my observation yesterday, which is a fair type of the kird, and Ita recital to a party of gentleman at the dinner-table of the Peabody brought tears to the eyes of more than one who heard it. A very worthy widow lady, whb had been surrounded by comfort, if not luxury, far better days, had her family reduced by the disease to a little daughter, whose turn came when least expected, and. resulting fatally, left the poor mother alone in the world, the sole survivor of what had until recently been a happy family. Her means were exhausted, and the thought of her daughter's being buried as a pauper was too much for her maternal heart to bear. When the child Was dead, the grief-stricken parent detailed the condition of her affairs to a revel end gentleman, who has been one of (he foremost In his labors for the afflicted, and asked if something could not be done to spare her this additional pang. She responded to the demands of her Father in Heaven, she raid, in giving her last child to God, but If ■ftto JBL,jgjjyjfH by. stnmgprs’ hands and fill an unknown pauper's grave, her mother’s heart would be broken. Tbe good pastor, appreciating the depth of feeling which prompted this last request, appropriated money for the dead child’s burial, and Friday afternoon the Innocent was laid away In tbe shade of a tree at Elmwood.