The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1854-11-25
Alisfella,leous.
The Great Plague.

In Dickens Childs History Of England vol. 2. wo
find the following respecting the Great Plague
that prevailed in the city Of London, in the sew
entecnth century.
During the winter of 1864 it had been
whispered about that some few people had
died here and there of a disease called the
plague, in some of the unwhoesomc suburbs
of London. News was not published at that
time as it is now, and some people believed
these rumors, and some disbclicvcd item, and
they were soon forgotten. But in the month
of May, 1864, it began to be said all over the
town that the disease had burst out with great
violence in st. Giles, and that the gcoplc
were dying in great numbers. This soon
turned out to be awfully true. The roads out
of London were chokcd up by people endeav-
oring to escape from the infected city, and
large sums were paid for any kind of convey
ancc.
The disease soon spread so fast that it was
II cccssary to shut up the houses in which
sick people were, and to cut them off from
communication with the living. Every one
of these houses was marked on the outside of
the door with red cross, and the words:
--"Lord have mercy on u.s. The streets
were all deserted, grass grew in the public
ways, and there was dreadful silcnccin the
air. When night cameon, distant rumblings
used to be heard, and these were the wheels
of the death-cart, attended by men with veil
cd faces and holding cloths TO their mouths,
who rang doleful bells, and cried in loud
and solemn voice, "bring out your dead !"
The corpscs put into the carts were buried by
torchlight in great pits, no service being per-
formed over thcm-all men being afraid to
stay for a moment on the brink Of the ghast-
ly graves. In the general fear children ran
away from their parents, and parents from
their children Some were stabbed or stran-
gled by hired nurses, who robbed them ofall
their money, and stole the very beds on which
they lay. Some went mad, dropped from
their windows, ran through the streets and
in their pain and frenzy threw themselves in
to the river.
These were not all the horrors of the time.
The wicked and dissolutc in wild desperation
sat in tavcrns, singing roaring songs and
were stricken as they drank, and went out
and died. The fearful and supersttious per-
suadcd themselves that they saw supernatu-
raj sishts-burning swords in the sky, gil
gantic arms and darts. Others pretended
that at night, vast crowds Of ghosts walked
round and round the dismal pits One mad
man, naked, and carrying a brazier full of
burning Goals upon his head, stalked through
the streets, crying out that he was prophet
commissioned to denounce the vengeance of
the Lord on wicked London. Another al
ways went to and fro, exclaiming :--"Yct
forty days and London shall be destroyed"
A third awoke the echoes Of the dismal streets
by night and by day, and made the blood of
the sick run cold, by calling necessarily in a
deep hoarse voice :-"Oh, the great and
dreadful God !"
Through the month Of July, August and
September. the Great Plague ragged more and
more. Great fires were lighted in the streets
in the hope of stopping the infection; but
there was a plague Of rain, and it beat the
fires out. At last the winds which usually
rise at that time of the year, which is called
the equinox, when day and night are of equal
length all over the world, began to blow and
purify the wrctched town. The deaths be-
gan to decrease, the fugtivcs to return, the
shops to open again, and pale, frightened ia
ces to be seen in the streets. The plague had
been in every part of England, but in close
and unwholesome London it had killed one
hundred thousand people.