Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1854-05-21
The Great Plague.

In Dickens Childs History of England. volume
two we find the following respecting the Great
| Plague that prevailed in the 1th century in the
city of London:
FOR TINS was the year and the time of the Great
| Plague In London. During the winter of 1864, it
| had been whispered about that some peonIe had
died here and there Of disease called the placue.
in some of the unwholesome suburbs around Lon
don. News was not published at that time as il is
now, aud some people believed these rumors ard
some disbelieved them and they were soon forgotten
But in the month of May 1865, it began to be
said all over the town that the disease had broken
out with great violence in ST. Giles; and that the
people were dying in great numbers. This soon
turned out to be avfuly true. The roads out OF
London were choked up by people endesvoring to
escape from the infected city, and large sums were
paid for any kind of conveyance. The disease
soon spread so fast that it was necessary to shut
up the houses in which sick people we're, and to
cut them off from communication with the living.
Every one of these houses marked on the out
side of the door with a red cross aud the words.
Lord have mercy on usr' The streets were sll
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
these were the wheels of the death cart, attended
by men with vailed faces and holding cloths to
their mouths who rang doleful bells, and cried i1
loud and solemn voice, Bring out your deadt'
The corpses put into these carts we're buried BY
torchlght in great pits no service being performed
over them-all men being afraid to stay for mo
ment on the brink of the CHASTITY graves. In the
general fear, children away from their parents.
and parents from their children. Some who were
taken i'll died alone and without any help. Sons
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 flung themselves into ths
river. These were not all the horrors Of the time.
The wicked and dssolute in wild desperation. sac
in taverns singing roaring songs. and were stricken
as they drank, and went out and died The fearful
and superstitious persuaded themselves that they
saw supernatural sghts-burning swords in tie
sky, gigantic arms and darts. Others pretended
that at night vast crowds Of ghosts walked round
and round the dismal pits. One madmsn, naked,
and carrying brazier full of burning Goals upon
his head, stazed through the streets, crying that
he was prophet commissioned TO denoHnce the
vengeance of the Lord on wicked London. An
other always went to and fro excaiming, yet fer
ty days, and London shall he destroyed" A third
awoke the echoes of the dismal streets. by night
and by day, aud made the blood Of the sick run
cold by calling out incessantly, in a deep hoarse~
voice, 80, the great and dreadful God"'
Through the months of July, and 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, and it beat the fires out At last, the
Winds which usually arise 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 to purify the wretched town. The deaths
began to decrease. the red crosses slowly to disap
pear, the fugitives to return. the shops to open
again. pale frightened faces to be seen in the SITS.
The plague had been in every part of England, bot
in close and unwholesome London it had killed one
hundred Thousand people.