The Daily Nashville true Whig. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1851-1855, 1855-09-18

All liia1 Is known, or dreamed, OF Aeat GU Vi
agony, in the shape Of death, is now known
and dreamed OF, and feared in the doomed
cities Of Norfolk aud Portsmouth, Virginia.
Death there, by the scourge ofthe yellow TO
yer, is, indeed, terrible. The air is dense and
murky, in it no bird is to be seen, and even
the flies which I'll it, are not those which
abound in the region of health, but, as If to
add another feature ofsterror to. the pestilence,
are marked on their backs with a stripe of the
fearful color which gives to the pestilence its
NAME The regular routine of life is complete
ly broken up, and the living walk about TO
look upon the dead. The hearse rests not
day nor night, and even then is insufficient to
carry out the dead, and the cart, and the wag
on, with the shells of mortality protruding far
over their fronts, are called to its aid. Cat
tie wander with melancholy lowings in the
streets, and half famished dogs howl hideonsly
in the still hours of night. Death and desc
lation, sorrow, suffering and terror, reign SUI
preme in street and home, where but few
months ago were the hustle of business, and
the light and sound of health and joy. This
is no exaggerated picture of the Inauguration;
it is but a faint representation of the reality.
Never in the history Of pestlence has COM
munity been more fearfuly visited with the
scoTfrge than are at present the communities
of Norfolk and Portsmouth. The population
within few weeks has been reduced to $500,
of which only 1900 are whites, the remaining
5000 being negroes. And still the scourge,
according to our telegraphic dispatches, is in
creasing. In addition to this, fears were en-
tertained a few days ago, of great suffering
from restitution, Independent of the fever, and
although the appeal for provision was at once
nobly answered by Baltimore and other neigh
boring PAGES, more is continually needed.
The yellow fever at Norfolk and Portsmouth
is to certain extent mystery. No specific
has been ascertained, and how it originated
there is question which has not been settled.
It has been stated that the fever was brought
to Portsmouth by the Benjamin Franklin,
from St. Thomas, bound to New York. Be-
ing compelled to put into Portsmouth, she re-
NAMED twenty days, broke CARGO" and the
fever followed Immediately, This would seem
to show that the pestience was of foreign or
ign, but testimony also has been brought for
ward which goes to prove that it was of a do
nestle origin, arising from miasma. To de-
termine this question of the origin of yellow
fever and suggest the best means of remedy,
is, we are glad to perceive, engaging the atten-
ton of our medical men very GENERALLY, at
present, and certainly there is no more vital
question in this country for the investigation
of medical science.
1t is pleasant to observe the general symps
thy from all parts of the Union which the
affection at Portsmouth and Norfolk has called
forth, and the substantial proofs of that SYM
pathy which have been given. Before suf
fering and death all sectional difference van
ish, and the North stretches forth her hand to
the South, remembering only that the suffer-
ing is to be aileviated, the stroke OF death to
be softened, and feeling that the performing
both these duties, TO their fullest extent, is the
strongest cement of union which can bind to-
gether the helper and the helped. -.-
We have thrown together few incidents
connected with the progress of the epidemic
in the doomed cities, selected from our ex-
changes, which we doubt not will prove inter-
esting 10 our readers.
The following is gloomy picture of the
plague-strcken city:
NORFOLK, Sept. S-5P.M.
The bIrials yesterday, from sunrise to ~ o'clock
at night, 45-and it was found impossible with
the limited conveyances at hand 10 dispose e them
before the hour above mentioned AS it was, many
poor victims had TO go under the ground boxed but
uncOfined owing to the scarcity of collins, which,
in many instances, two and three were laid side by
side together in coarse box, hastily construct
TOR the purpose, and so inferred like common case
o. merchandise These sad scenes, and the large
mortality, have struck new panic in the few peo-
pie remaining, and this morning over one hundred
persons left the city. IL is supposed that numbers
of others will follow, aud that by the close of the
week our present small population will be dimn-
ished by at least FIVE or six hundred And, ia fact
we cannot blame the people-those who are not
bound here by ties of duty and honor-from flying
from this horrible depot of disease aud death
Ii requires a greater amount If moral courage to
renssin from day to day, and face the invisible des
troyer VINO attacks in many insIdious and protean
forms, than to bear the shock OF twenty pitched
battles. II any one wishes TO see the picture of
destruction and death" 10 its most sorrowful FORM
let him take walk to our Potter's field any morn
ing before seven o'clock. He will then see num-
bers of collins scattered promscuously on the
ground emitting most horrible efluyinm, left there
the previous night for nteFment the next morning.
Sometimes these shells of mortality, for the want OF
sufficient number OF grave diggers are left rottng
and sinking in the sun during sthe greater part of
the day.
The Norfolk Argus has the following:
We have now about 1000 people left in the city,
and among these the mortality is awiul-worse
than anything yet written Of the visitstons OF the
plague Two doors from where we are writing
there lies fostering corpse, which has been de-
composing for nearly forty eight hours. The house
is empty with the exception OF It's dead occupant
the fourth corpse in the house within week
But one or two children Of the afflicted left, and
they are In the hospital sick.
A Portsmouth correspondent, writing two
days previous, relates the following distressing
incidents:
Mrs. J. E. Wilson's family are peculiarly afaict-