Plymouth advertiser. [volume] (Plymouth, Ohio) 1853-1988, 1854-11-17
The Great Plague.

In Dlcken' Chlid' 5 History OF England,
volume two, we find the following, respect
ing the Great Plague that prevailed in the
seventeenth century in the city of London:
"'For this was the year and the time of
the Cheat Plague in London. During tho
winter Of 1864, it. had been whispered
about that some people had died here and
there of disease called the Plague in some
of the unwhOesome suburbs of London.
News was not published at that time as it
is now, and some people believed these
rumcrs anl some people disbelieved them,
and they were soon forgotten. But in the
month Of May, 1865, being to be said all
over the town that the disease had burst
out in 1t. Giles, and that the people were
dying in great numbers. This soon turn
ed out to be awfully true. The roads of
London were choked up by people endeav-
oring to escape from the infected city, and
large sums were paid for any kind of con.
veyance. The disease soon spread so fast
that 1t was necessary to shut up the houses
in which people were, and to cut them off
from the living. Every one of those hous-
eS were marked on the outside of the door
with red cross, and the words Lord
have mercy on us : The streets were all
deserted, grass grew in the public WAYS,
and there was dreadful silence in the air.
When night came on, dismal rumblings
used to be heard, and those were the wheels
Of the death carts, attended by men with
veiled faces, and holding clothes to their
mouth, who rang dolcful bells, and cried
in loud and solemn voice-'Bring out
your dead The corpscs put into these
carts were buried by torch light in great
pits, no service being performed over them
all men being afraid to stay for a moment
on the bank Of the ghastly graves. In the
general fever, children ran away from their
parents, and parents from their children.
Some who were taken i'll, died alone and
without any help. Some were stabbed or
strangled by hired nurses who robbed
them of all their money and stole the very
bed on which they lay. Some went mad,
dropped from their windows, ran through
the streets, and in their pain and frenzy,
threw themselves into the river.
Those were not all the horrors of the
time. The wicked and dissolute, in wild
desperation, sat in taverns, singing roar
ing songs, and were stricken as they sat,
and went out and died. The fearful and
supernatural sightS-burning swords in
the ky, gigantic arms and darts. Others
pretended that at night vast crowds of
ghosts walked round and round the dismal
pits. One mailman, naked and carving
a brazier full Of burning Goals upon his
head, stalked through the streets, CRYING
that be was prophet commissioned to
denounce the vengeance of the Lord on
wicked London. Another also went to
and fro, eXclaiming - Yet forty days and
London shall be destroyed i A third
awoke the echoes of the dismal streets, bv
night and by day, and made the blood Of
the sick run cold, by calling out incessans-
ly, In deep, hoarse voice. Oh the great
and the dreadful God =
Through the months of July, August.
and September, the Great Plague ragged
more and more. Great fires were lighted
in the streets, in hope of stopping the in.
lection; but there was a Plague of rain
too, and that beat the fires out AT las,
the winds that usually rise at that time
called the equinox, when day and night
are Of equal length all over the world, be-
gan to blow and purify the wretched town.
The deaths began to decrease, the red cross
es slowly to disappear, the tugitives to re-
turn, the shops to open again, pale, fright
enod faces to he seen in the streets. The
plague had been in every part of England,
but in close and unwholesome London, il
had killed one hundred thousand people" "