The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1855-08-30
The scourged Cities.

The Baltimore American OF Friday
last contains a letter, dated Norfolk IN
The afternoon of Wednesday, which gives
a truly melancholy picture OF the cona'-
ton of things in that afflicted city 1he
letter says:
"a Sabbath stiffness prevails, broken
only by the rattle of the doctors chalseS
and the rumbling of the hearse and SICK
wagon. Scarcely store is open on Main
street, Market square, or Broad "ater
street, the business portions OF the city
The apothecares have removed with their
pills, bills, plasters, and drugs to their
residences, and, nairabile dlctHl! SO have
the brokers. There is not quorum oil
directors in either of the banks; only two
or three Of the city fathers are in the ci-
ty; preachers look around their churches
in vain for their parishioners; newspapers
daily accumulate on doorsteps aud on
porches for want of readers; gaunt pow
erty stalks abroad with downcast look
and fearful eve; the wall Of the widow
and of the orphan startles the solitary pas
senger, and ali is gloom and grief, almost
without hope. Never has Norfolk re-
ceived such a visitation before. And yet
the mortality has not been as great as ID
1921 and 1926, when the yellow fever
was here; nor as in 1882, when the chol-
era prevailed among US. Twelve deaths
day are not more than the average now;
twenty-five and thirty were the average
then. Yet the people then pursued their
usual avocations as if there was no pestl-
icnce, and poverty and distress were re-
lieved by private charity. Now. all busi-
ness is suspended, and but for the How
ard Association people would starve in the
streets. Is life more preciovs now than
formerly, or are men more timid ! But
for the fearless few remaining, whose
hearts are alive to sympathy and whose
ears are open to the tale of distress, God
only knows what would become of the
poor"
A letter from Physician at Ports.
mouth represents the state of affairs there
also as most appalling. The letter is da
ted on Tuesday night, and says:
at is now nine o'clock P. NJ, and
have just got back to my Office, after be
ing necessarily engaged since five O'Clock
this morning. have seen and prescribed
for over one hundred patients to-day, anc
every moment new calls are made upol
me, and the most urgent entreaties usee
to induce me to see father, mother, bro
tber, or friend. But can 60 no further
| am completely exhausted, and must have
a little rest to enable me to resume th'
duties of the tomorrow, if perchance
am myself spared in health.
II am no alarmist, and have no dispo
sition to exaggerate, and certainly no wisl
to harrow the feelings of any one by th'
recital of scenes of distress; but it woult
sicken any one to know what is now trans
piring in our town. Whole families art
down, without the ability in many case
to procure a drop of water to cool thei
fevered lips. Alas! alasl for poor Ports
mouth! Oh! God, how long!
II wrote you yesterday a note, designed
for publication, beseeching medical aid
| know it must require an amount OF cour
age possessed by few to venture thus seem
ingly into the jaws of death to rescue o
theirs. But is there no devoted man, NJ
gallant soul, who will say | will 60! Tw
or three physicians, I see, have volunteer
ed for Norfolk, where the medical corp
is larger than in this place. Shall poo
stricken Portsmouth be left to her fate
Forbid it Heaven, forbid it humanity =
IT'S Macedonian cry, come over am
help us'
The latest advices from Norfolk stat
that there were twenty-seven deaths Oh
Wednesday and sixteen up to noon o
Thursday, leaving more than three hun
dred fever cases still under treatment
In Portsmouth, during the same period
the number of deaths was twenty-five
with four hundred eases under treatment
This shows that the sickness is still alarm
ingly on the increase.
Up to Saturday last there had beer
received into the United States Nava
Hospital two hundred yellow fever pa
tients, of which number one hundred ant
seventy were citizens of Portsmouth ant
the residue persons connected with th'
naval service. About fifty deaths had oc
Cured, and many Of them under treat
ment would certainly die. The fever i
believed to be of type more malignan
than that generally met with in the Yves
Indies and Gulf of Mexico.
poi1road Motferc