The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1849-07-18
81. LOUIS.

The following description of the terrible state OF
affairs in this city is from the correspondence OF
the Boston Transcript:
Calamites all around Death
is every where Cholera is dealing its blows to
the right and left and thousands of our people have
been hurried to their graves. A well man now
may be AN hour hence corpse The sections, the
underwriters, and even the horses Of the city, are
worn out with the dreadful work of burial. Carts
and furniture-wagons have to supply the places of
hearses, which, though numerous are insufficient
10 carry out the collins, though piled one upon
another
Many dead bodies lie withouta friend To execute
the rites Of interment until public officer or sis
ter of charity comes TO put them in the ground.
Some persons, to save expenses which they are not
able to bear, bury their friends in the woods or on
the sand-bars of the river. Many is the house
lately full of inhabitants that now has scarcely one
left to tell the story of the departed Husband and
wife will take their tea together at evening, and
before next morning one or both is ready for the
grave.
Some of the sections, overtasked, bury the dead
at half the usual depth. The city government have
abdicated their powers before an indignant popu-
lace and the duties of the board of health de-
voved upon committee of citizens. The public
schoo-houses are turned into hospitals, and the
chief business Of the living is to take care of the
sick and dying, and to bury the dead Many mem
bers of the city government and probably not less
than 10000 Of the citizens have fled. The stiffness
of the Sabbath reigns, while death is doing its
work. The newspapers do not, it is said, report
half the cases. because all the forms of law are pa
ralyzed and officers do not discharge their duties.
duness, nervousness, and lack Of energy are
manifested by every one. The atmosphere is hot
and humid Flies swarm in myriads Vegetation
grows with the rankest luxuriance, and animal life
sinks proportionably.
disease would soon begin to abate but it only in
creases II is believed that not less than 400 die
per week, or about 200 per day! The names of
the dead are not given. Many of your acquant-
ances doubtless | might name, but the deaths are
too numerous to particuarze. | believe we have
had but one death upon our plantation, and that
one was Peter Albrecht, one of the stoutest of us
all. Three of our negroes have had the incipient
symptoms, but, with the advantage of knowing the
fact promptly, have succeeded in curing every
case for which have administered The country
is full of bilious disorders and arrangement of
stomach and bowels, and have not escaped. With
the children we have to be very watchful, and
check the first symptoms of diarrhGa | have
felt as if the messenger of death might knock at
any moment at our door. To fly would be merely
to expose ourselves to death under more distress
ing circumstances As it is, we make our home
our castle Here we can best meet the enemy of our
health and contend with him. By prudence, the
use of dsinfectants and our remote situation we
hope to escape.
The proportionate number of deaths to the popu-
lation is about equal to daily mortality of six
hundred in New York