, 1865-09-01
The BIael. Death.


counts Of the plague called the Black Death
might not be uninteresting. The following
is from the Cornhill (England) Magazine :
The Black Death like many other plaques
Of its class, can be traced far back into the
remote east and there is no doubt that it
was the same disease which ravaged China
and Tartary in 1885, fifteen years before it
arrived on the shores Of Europe. There
had been a great famine in China, preceded
by floods and earthquakes, which alone de-
stroyed 400 600 died Of the plague From
The remote East ID maae It's way into Eu
rope some years later, for pestilence often
travels slowly, accompanying the migra-
tions Of men, and being carried about in
their clothes and merchandise. 1t did not
arrive in Europe until l347, fifteen years
after its outbreak in China. " From Chi
ma, says Hecker, the routes Of the cara
vans lay to the north of the Caspian Sea-,
through Central Asia, to Tauris. Here
ships were ready to take the produce Of the
East to Constantiople, the capital Of com
merce and medium Of communication be-
tween Asia, Europe and Africa" Conta-
gion made its way along these channels and
ConstantinOple, and the seapOrts Of Asia
Minor were the foci whence the disease was
carried to every country Of Europe Ma
king its way across the European continent,
it made its greatest rayages-save, perhaps,
in England-in Italy, raging terribly at
Florence, where it was observed and des-
cribed by the poet Bocaccio. Passing along
the shores Of the Mediterranean, it invaded
France by way Of Avignon, spreading
thence to England on the one hand, and to
Germany on the other, whence IKE the
cholera Of the present day, it doubled back
two years later to Russia, and SO back to
the East
The Black Death, so called, from the rap
id putrefaction Of the bodies Of its victims,
was of the same nature as the oriental
plague--viz: putrid typhus, only of great
er malignity. The boils of the latter dis
ease we're found in the former whenever the
patient lived long enough to permit their
development. The inhabitants of Europe
at that time have been computed at l05,-
600, Coca high estimate. OF these 25,-
100000, or one-fourth Of the whole perished
In England it was still more fatal owing
likely to the ruder habits of the people
During The term Of one year-viz from
August, l348 to August, 1349, three
feafths Of the whole population perished
Indeed, if we are to credit the annalists of
that period, no more than one tenth es-
capped Many succumbed in few hours,
like Sennacherib's host: none endured for
three days In France numbers died on
the spot where they were first smitten, as if
struck by lightning This terrible scourge
having swept over the then well known
world, committing such destruction Of life,
and leaving behind it such misery and pow
erty as the world never saw before nor since,
at length died out; never again, we trust,
to revisit the earth 1t spared neither age,
nor sex, nor condition; the rich and poor
alike succumbed. There died in Venice of
then aristocratic, no less than 100000 per-
sons in Florence, the refined, 60000 in
Paris, the gay 5O,OO0 and in London, the
wealthy 100000 while in busy, rich, in
dustrious Norwich, there died the almost in
credible number Of $4,000 persons-nearly
the whole, one would suppose, Of its inhabi-
tants At Avignon the deaths occurred
with such frightful rapidity as to wholly
battle the attempts of the living to inter
their friends. and relatives and the Pope
was obliged to consecrate the Rhone to al
low Of the dead bodies finding hallowed
resting place upon its bosom, until it finally
committed them to the great deep.
THE editor Of paper in Nevada gets off
the following upon the ridiculous custom Of
kissing brides:
" We never had bride that we can re-
member, for the reason that we are too poor
and intelligent but should the future have
one in store for us, and any man should at
tempt that privilege, we'll knock chips
enough from his nose to exempt him from
the draft"
MARK IT.-That man who does the most
growing about the course taken by his
county paper characterizes it as a "slow
coach and talks the most of opposition" is
invariably the one who gives it the least