Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1854-11-15
NUMBER 43.
THE GREAT PLAGUE.


In Dickens child's History Of England
vol. two, we find the following, respecting
the Great Plague that prevailed in the
18th century in the city ofLondon:
"For this was the year and time Of the
Great Plague in London. During the win.
ter Of 1864, it had been whispered about
that some people had died here and there
Of disease called the Plague in some OF the
INV ho.esome suburbs Of London. News
was not published at that time as il is now
and some people believed these rumors
and some disbelevcd them, and they were
soon forgotten. But in the month ofMay,
1865, il began to be said all over the town
that the disease had burst out in st. Giles
and that the people were DYING in great
numbers. This soon turued out TO be ow-
folly true. The roads Of London were
choked up by people er1eoyoring to es.
cape from the infected city, and large
sums were paid for any kind of convey.
ance. The disease spread so fast that it
was necessary to shut up The houses in
which people were, and to cut them off
from the living. Every one Of those hou.
scs were marked on the outside Of the
door with red cross, and the words "Lord
have mercy on usr' The streets were all
deserted, grass grew in the public ways,
and there was a dreadful silence in the
air. When night came on, dismal rum.
blings used to be heard, and those were
the wheels Of the death cart, attended by
men with veiIed faces, and holding cloths
to their mouths, who rang doleful bells
and cried in loud and solemn voice
"Bring out your dead" The corpses put
into these carts were buried by torch light
in great pits, no service being performed
over ;hem--all men being afraid 10 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
beds 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 lime--The wicked and the dissoIule,
in wild desperation, sat in taverns, singing
roaring songs, and were stricken as they
sat, and went out and died. The fearful
and supernatural sght-burning swords
in the sky, gigantic arms and daris.-
Others pretended that at night vast crowds
of ghosts walked round and round the
dismal pits. One mGdman, naked, and
carrying drnzier full Of burning Goals
upon his head, stalked through the streets,
crying that he was prophet commits.
stoned 10 denounce the vengeance Of the
Lord on wicked London. Another also
went 10 and fro, excIaiming :-"Yet forty
days and London shall be destroyed !'
A third awoke the echoes of the dismal
streets, by night and by day, and mado
the blood of the sick run cold, by calling
out necessarily, in deep hoarse voice
"Oh the great and the 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 plague of rain,
too, that beat the fires out. At last the
winds that usually rise at that time cal.
led the equinox, when day and night arc
! ofequal length all over the world, began
r 10 blow and purify the wrctched town.
/ The deaths began to decrease, the red
. crosses slowly 10 disappear, the iugitiycs
; 10 return, the shops to open again, pale,
1 frightened faces to be seen in the streets
G The plague had been in every part Of
e England but in close and unwhoIesome
- London it had killed one hundred thou.
s sand people"