Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1854-10-22
The Plague In London.

We copy the following from the correspen
dence of the Home Journal. 1t seems a.
though the statement must be greatly exagge-
rated, for we have met with nothing in the
foreign files, or in the letters of the various
correspondence TO confrm the tale Of horror
The Journal youches for the credibility of its
informant, but the news is 30 terrible We can.
not buthope it will be found to be greatly mag
nifed:
"One hundred and fifty years since, more or
less, the infection Of the plague was brought
to this city from Alexandria, in chest OF
clothes. Half of London persisted with this
fearful contagion. The bodies were carried
out and buried in deep pits in those fields
which now lie under Argyle street and its i'm
mediate neighborhood. This plague, it is said,
has now been turned up by the spade, and has
begun TO ravage London. Impossible as this
may seem, the surgeons and physicians say
positively that London is not suffering much
from the cholera; that it is o contagious dis
ease which has broken out in this neighbor-
hood, and that it is rapidly spreading.
II would appear that in cutting sewer
through Argyle street, it was carried rather
deeper than ordinary, and that bones of the
old victims Of this fearful disease were turned
up by the workmen, many of whom were taken
ill and died suddenly Children, also, who
had come and played with these bones, sick.
ened and perishedl Moreover, it was noticed
that those who came In contact with either the
workmen or children sickened and died, in most
cases within o few hours. The disease in
creased. Clever physicians said that it was
decidedly not the cholera.
The disease now spread rapidly, and in q
week from the time at which it broke out, it
had completely ravaged the streets in Soho and
its immediate vicinity; at the present moment
Poland street, Argyle street, and others, are
closed against all passers. Half the shops in
Regent street are shut up. The remainder are
rapidly closing. At two o'clock in the day.
scarcely dozen persons may be met within
that great thoroughfare. In those streets which
the disease is most speedily depopulating, the
dead bodies are placed in the open air imme.
diately that life has departed from them, so
great is the fear of contagion. / have seen in
two instances, half dozen bodies being car
ried off in black sacks, like bales of goods, for
burial. You will easily judge how great a
fright this has created. Every one who is able
T. do SO, has fled. London, generally 1T this
time just emptying, is now half depopulated
ran away. He is not man easily frightened
Ask him and he will corroborate what Il have
told you, as he must now be in New York.
Business is at o complete stand STILL Nothing
is doing. Amusements for the time being
have completely closed.
Physicians say that this is undoubtedly the
plague. The symptoms occasionally vary from
those which are reported to have accompanied
it when it, in the reign of Charles H., swept
off one half of London. No medical means
have as yet availed to stopi it. 1t is propa
gated by contagion, and is singularly speedy in
its effects; SURPRISING even the speed with
which the cholera, on its first appearance, slew
its victims"