Indiana American. [volume] (Brookville, Ind.) 1833-1861, 1855-09-14
Ravages of the Yellow Fever In
Portsmouth and Norfolk.

Ravages of the Yellow Fever In
Portsmouth and Norfolk.
A correspondent Of the South Side
IVA. Democrat, writing from Ports
mauth, Va, says:
ITO one who has never witnessed
a city suffering from pestilence
can convey noadequate idea Of the
desolations Of Portsmouth. IL LOOKS
like the fallen city Of the Arabian
N!tfhts. in which everything was sud-
denly petrifed and frozen into silence
and death. Closed stores. perfectly
deserted streets, window shutters ey-
where fastened, and nothing to relieve
the frightful and unnatural blankness
az the scene but hearses and collins
and corpses? We are humbled,
scourged and bowed in the dust before
y power in VIII use hands the strength of
man is weakness. and his wisdom fol-
ly. DR.. S. Of New Orleans, who
has himself lost three children, / be-
lieve by the fever. and whose expert
ence gifts ravages is second to that of
few men Of his age in the world, per-
haps, informed me day or two since
that, in his judgement, yellow fever
was n bane, for which no antidole had
yet been discovered. and that human
skill was entirely inadequate TO its
management.
When tsll you that such "A disease
is seizing our citizens at the rate of
over fifty day, in population of
certainly not more than twenty-five
hundred. you may have some idea OF
the fearful .nearness with which death
stares us in the face. There is no
civil government, no printing press GO
ing. scarcely store open. no buying
nor selling, save for the trade in drugs.
no banking. no legislation, no visiting,
save Deaths visitings, and, worse than
all, no hoper -
A letter in the Petersburgh Elk
press, dated Norfolk, Monday. Sd inst,
says:
''From sun rise yesterday to mid
night fifty poor creatures were shov-
eled away under the cold sod Ithas
created new and Tremendous panic
among the few whites remaining in
our city. Over one hundred stan,pe.
ded this morning, and there's "a few
more left ofthe same sort" who vii
decamp tomorrow.
I We regret to say that the fever Ia,
broken out in the Orphan Asylum
several cases were reported yesterday
! (none, as yet, fetal) in that refuge o
the fatherless and molherless little in
noeents.
1--WE last evening noticed a com
mon box. like case of merchandise
borne swiftly along in "a hearse. Or
inquiry we learned that three remnan
mis- of mortality.lay ini it. placed sid,
by side, and were then on their wa,
to the Poiter's Field The scarcity o
collins forced on the undertaken to thi
alternative. They were, however, al
ofone family. struck down at zone Eel
swoop."
Forty persons dead with the feyel
are awaiting burialin town to-day
We can't pretend to find out ihei
names-they are scattered Habout so
in different lanes and alleys-and W.
only note prominent ones.
ltbeing found impossible 10 di.
single graves, large pit has been dug
and the collins placed in layers nboy,
each other. and so illed up with linn,
and dirtl
ANIMALS ATTAcKED.-We leran tina
the epidemic has extended TO animals
and dogs and cats are found lyin,
about dead. with unmistakabie evi
dences of the plague-such as bleed
Ing from the nose and mouth, &c.
Dalton Wheeler. a prominent ma,
in the Norfolk Howard Association: !
very low; w. p. Durham and son
are very sick; Rev. Mr.. Jones. of tn,
colored church. was taken down las
night; &. Summers has seven sick il
his family; I. Boothby is very sick
three died at the Jail.
The City Council Of Norfolk hav,
appointed a committee To superintenc
the digging Of trenches at the Potter
Field, in which TO bur, he dead. AZ
the mortality is becoming too great t.
admit ofburying them in the usua
manner.
We learn from a private letter writ
ten by ex-Mayor Hubbs, that on Mon.
day there were fifty corpses lying with
out collins to bury them with.
We learn from good authority that
on Monday there were seventy deaths
in Norfolk.
Mrs. j. Z. Wilson's family are PEE
culiarly afflicted; her husband has died
of the fever, and she has lost her cook.
This afternoon the physicians in visi-
ting the house. found Mr. Wilson i'll in
one room. two daughters sick in anoth-
er. and one about Ia years old in
another, and her two servants sick in
the kitchen. with no one TO hand them
a glass of water. A more heart-ren-
ding scene has never been witnessed"