Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1855-09-05
SPIRIT OF THE MORNING PRESS.
WASHINGTON NEWS AND GOSSIP.

lny, from N0lICik anu fOltsl0outn, Were I'm
the course of yesterday more heart-rending
than ever before. A physician from that quar-
ter, who. fortnight ago, was given over by
his brother doctors, aitsr having distinguished
himself by his fearless and cea eless profess
sionsl labors from the commencement of the
disease is nowir this city to recruit his health,
which could not pe done with hundreds of his
old patients clamorous, daily, for him to at
tend stricken-down members Of their families
We had long interview with him last even
ing, and knowing most Of the families well,
concerning the condition Of whom he conversed,
our blood ran cold on realizing the extent of
the sufferings Of the desolated communities.
The surgeons and assistant surgeons at the
naval hospitals are heroes. Six in number,
0he Government having rel forced the three
stationed there, when the fever broke out, by
ordering three others to do duty there,) they
had ON the day before yesterday quit, one
hundred and forty persons in their care and
down with the fever; while, at the same time,
Dr. Minor, (of Fredericksburg,) U. s. N, the
chief surgcon at the hospital, had in his own
family one Of his children laying dead and
In the family Of James Z. Wilson, who died
n few days since of the fever, his widow YVES
sick with it, one daughter, about IA years of
age, dying and the two other children and
the two servants also sick, it'll not soul to
hand them 8 drop of wafer, though they are
persons who, ordinarily, would have AL the
town to aid them in sickness, Unnecessary.
zto
supposed to be past al hope of recovery. He
was not thought to have the fever when first
taken down.
The mortality in the family Of Patrick VIII
Hams, worthy master workman in the navy
yaTd, is fair example of the ravages Of the
disease. His son was early attacked, and has
recovered, while ne and his four grown and
estiuable daughters, are all numbered with
the dead. Gut of that Williams family con-
nectiOn in Portsmouth, fifteen have died
while OF the Eve who not long since composed
the Mapring family, but one survives.
Those charged with the duty of providing
for the wants Of the sick and destitute of Ports
mouth and Gosport ct this lime spend $500
per diem in that way, and anticipate being
called on necessarily to incres &c their OUTLAWS
They have tuned the academy building into
an orphan asylum for the pi otcc.:on and care
Of the feyer-made orphans, amor them being
five small children of one family, John D.
Cowpers,) all the natural protectors and
friends of whom are numbered with the dead
They complain at Portsmouth, and very
justly, that their commute has fs'led to re-
ceive fair share of the $4,000 said to have
been forwarded to the Norfolk and Portsmouth
committees, getting but such sums only as hap
pen to be directed TO them particularly. In
this way they have received but SIS, 900 of the
100000 in all sent down there. Full 200
os the 3 600 souls left in Portsmouth (ncluding
Gosport) were, on the day before yesterday,
either down with the fever or barely able -
crawl about, and with $500 charitably dis
bursed necessary to suppors them, it was En-
ronsously understood there that the govern
meat had found it absolutely necessary to order
the navy yard gates to be closed or, in other
words, to stop al mechanics work in the yard
for the time being.
This prospect of throwing out Of employ
ment some FIVE hundred persons whose asgre-
gate pay is at leas. $3.50 per diem, or 81, 500
per week TO be deducted from the present
wholly insufficient means which that stricken
people possess Of living had Great ID almost an
additional panic.
The committee from that region, now in
this city, came to endeayOr to induce the Gov
eminent to accord Old Point Comfort to be
used for the temporary occupation of those
now in Norfolk and Portsmouth who are not
down of the fever, and also to induce the
Navy Department to advance months pay
to its employees in the Norfolk navy yard
We are satisfied that the President has
promptly assured this committee Of the false
hood Of the story that orders had been issued
to bring to close the work in the navy-yard ::
and that on consultation With the Secretary of
the Navy, an order was today issued to ad-
vance to every head of family working in the
yard, months pay, or wages, if he desired to
send his family to healthier location. This
is TIE measure of great relief in the hands of
the Government, and absolutely necessary to
fave perhaps athousand souls who otherwise
would, probably, be attacked before irost.
We do not comprehend how, under existing
circumstances, the request for the use of Old
Point Comfort for the people of Norfolk, can
Pruaentiy or properly be complied with. In
GLIDING the families o. the mechanics and Ia.
borers employed in the ar email and on other
government works at Old Point, the number ~
persons necessary &c oe removed IL fu,, a tesr
hundred. The buildings on the Point are not
sufficient for the accommodation of more than
one'third of those for whose use they are asked
OEeIerowded with fugitiycs fresh from Mo-.
folk, the fever would of course break ort will
Eirulenee there, and extend to Hampton, al
most within a stones throw, where there is =.
temporary town, and q considerable one, Of
iugitives' who, leaving early, have so far had
very few eases of the fever among them.