The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-03-13

mouth, 70 estimate the horrors of the pestilence
=. NJ. The people by hundreds fed the
city those that remained, by thousands died.
The population, reduced to less than one
nall, consisted chiefly of the poorer classes.
Who could not get away, and of those heroic
souls whom high sense of Christian duty or
simple humanity had retained in or brought IN
the scene OF misery. A dense, copper colored
cloud hung low, like pail, over the plague
stricken city; its air was considered deadly to
the new conner that breathed it.
All intercourse between M and the sur.
rounding plantations was interdicted. The
greatest anxiety was felt by the planters, lest
tne iever should break out in their families, or.
.wnere 1t would be more likely to make its FIRST
appearance among their slaves the greatest
precautions were taken to avert sucb q dread
misfortune The masters and their families
confined themselves strictly to their own do.
mains, and the slaves were positively forbidden
to approach the city, or even the highways lead.
ing thitherward. AS many of the neipbborinp
negroes had friends or relatives living in the
city, and as their affections are known to be
rather obstinate and daring, to insure safety. a
voluntary police was organized by the planters.
whose duty 1t was, In turn, to guard the high.
ways, ana see that no negro passed without a
written permit from the master or mistress.
Freventives of disease and disinfectine
agents were diligently sought after. Alcohol,
IN the form OF wine, brandy, and whisky. was
supposed to be sovereign safeguard against
the pestilence. l do not say that it was laid
down as a medical dogma that a babitual inc.
briate enjoyed impunity from contagion: but I
do say; what will probably shock nv Temper
ance readers, that all persons were counselled
by their physicians TO keep themselves always
under the influence of alcohol, SO long as the
pestilence should last. And most people took
the advice, finding, at least, something in the
half stimulating, half stu efying, effects of
liquor, to brave or dull the sense of danger.
Wine and brandy were freely used in the plant
er's family; whisky was freely circulated among
the negroes of the plantation. Some among
them OF the Methodist persuasion and the Tenn
perance Society demurred at breaking their
pledge; but even these, when made to under
stand that the whisky was to be taken as ncdi-
cane, by the advice of physician, felt their
consclences set at rest upon the subject, and
never was doctors stuff swallowed with less
repugnance than their grog was taken, three
times day.
Valentine held to his principles longest of
any; he would not break his pledge. In vain
for long time his master, and even his mis-
tress, demonstrated with him.
circumstances altered cases: times were
changed selfpreservation was the first law
OF nature; in view of the present danger, his
pledge was not binding; for if he kept his
pledge, he might lose his Hfe," they would
argue.
THAT was the Lords affair; all he had to do
was to keep his pledge; and if he should die.
so much the better; life had ID charms for
him." Valentine would reply.
And in truth the wretched young man was
much to be compassionated His wife and
child alone and helpless in the midst of the
plague, exposed to the united horrors of pesti-
lence, famine, and solitary death from deser-
ton; himself forbidden to seek them at their
utmost need Thrice had he escaped and
sought the city, and as often had he fallen into
the hands of the voluntary police; they did not
maltreat him, except inasmuch as they would
not suffer him to pass without a permit from his
master, and this permit could not be obtained.
He could think of nothing but his wife and
child. Were they living, and suffering I'M
imagined miseries? Were they among the
uncounted dead, whose rude collins Law one
upon another, three or four deep, not in graves,
al thoughts by day, and his fitfui dreams BY
night, were haunted with the forms of Fannie
and of Coralie. He saw little Coralie in every
phase of memory, and hope, and fear. He
saw her bright and beautiful, as she had been
in the sweet spring time he saw her pale and
pining, as he had seen her last in her wasting
sickness; and he saw her lying dead in her
coffin, and woke with loud cry of anguish.
His heart, his spirit, seemed broken.
Seeing his haggard and despairing looks, his
mistress expostulated with him, and counselled
the use of wine or brandy, saying that the de-
pressing effects of the atmosphere were felt by
everybody, even by those living in the country /;
that it affected all persons with despondency,
causing them to look only on the darkest side
of all things; and that it was only to be coun-
teracted by the stimulating qualities of alcohol.
ct last Valentine followed this counsel, and
took the prescribed medicine" Not to pre-
vent contagion did he take it, though that pur-
pose would have exonerated him from the
charge of broken pledge; but to dull the
poignant sense of suffering, which was greater
than he could bear.
Oh, fatal day that he placed again to his lips
the maddening glass All have seen how dan
gerous is such relapse. 1t is generally sud-
den and hopeless fall. 1t was so in the case of
this poor fellow. He took the first glass, and
liking It's effects, took SECOND and third, be-
fore stopping. If he woke in the morning to
remember his troubles, he drank all day to for
get them, and fell at night into heavy sleep.
he zealously followed the medical prescrip-
hon-nay, he quite overdid it, and kept him
not Slightly" under the influence of alcohol.
And in short space of time, if his master or
his mistress demonstrated with him, it was not
for total abstinence from Intoxicating spirits,
but for the opposite extreme of habitual intern.
perance. Such was the state of affairs at Red
Hill for few weeks, during which Valentine
had no direct or certain intelligence of Fannie
and his little child.
THE DRUNKARD's BRAN.-Hyrti, by far the
greatest anatomist of the age, used to say that
he could distinguish, in the darkest room, by
one stroke of the scalpel, the brain of the ine-
ebriate from that of the person who had lived
soberly. Now and then he would congratulate
his class upon the possession of drunkards
brain, admirably fitted, from its hardness and
more complete preservation, for the purposes
of demonstration, When the anatomist wishes
to preserve human brain for any length of
time, he effects his purpose by keeping that OBJ
ject in q vessel of alcohol. From soft, pulpy
substance, it then becomes comparatively hard.
But the inebriate, anticipating the anatomist,
begins the indurating process before death
begins it while the brain remains the consecra-
ted temple of the soul, while its delicate and
gossamer tissues still throb with the pulses of
heaven-b born life. Strange infatuation, thus to
1esecrate the god,like! Terrible enchantment
hat dries up all the fountains of generous feel
ng, petrifes all the tender humanities and
sweet charities of life, leaving only brain of
cad and heart of stone
Stone ToRToIsEs, HYENAs, &c.-The Saint |
louis Democrat states that DIR. Hayden, a |
1oung man of that city, devotee of natural