Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1865-09-25
Especial Correspondence N. Y. Tribune.l
FROM CONSTANTENOPLE.

The ChoIera--Its Fearful Ravages-
$4,000 Destroyed by It-Scenes and
Incidents-Americ rican Missi0naries--
The Weather. .f-.-'
CoNsTANTINoPLE, August 90, 1865.
Constantinople has thrice before been
visited by the Asiatic cholera but the form
er Visitations have been of small import
ance in comparison with thepresent. a
Fifty days have passed since its first
authenticated appearance In the city, and
not less than .titty thousand persons have been
swept into eternity by its ravages. 1t reach
ed its hight about August 6, when it issup-
posed that the deaths were not less than
three thousand a day for several days.
The published report of deaths in the
city has never reached this point, but it is
known to all that to prevent a general and
uncomfortable panic, these reports have
been deliberately falsifed. ] have made
careful Investigations upon this point, and
am able to speak without fear of contradic-
tion. Take a single day for example, since
the decline has commenced. On August IA
the official reports, as published, repres scented
the deaths for that day at 279. The official
returns, as actually made to the Grand
Vizier and as registered in his office, show
the deaths on that day to have been 1859! !
six times the number reported in the pub
lished bulletins.
These published statements make the
whole number Of deaths only about $4,000.
AT the rate of August II this would give
$4,000 as the real number Of deaths, but this
estimate is too large. Since the number of
deaths has fallen below thousand a day,
the ratio has been very much less.
Fifty thousand Is a fair estimate includ-
s.,ge all Na,.1 NF ,sE,. no..
garrison and the naval contingent. More
than one hundred thousand persons besides
have fled from the city. This number of
deaths, in addition to those who have tled
in population of a million, has changed
the city from busy mart of trade to a city
of the dead and dying. Whole families
have been swept off in day, and hundreds
of houses left tenantless. | know several
English families where the father and all
the Children have died within a week. |
know of a family which consisted of a
grandfather, his son, his sons wife and four
children. No cholera had appeared in their
quarter of the city; but suddenly it came,
and in two days LETT the old grandfather
the sole living representative of the family.
Certain quarters have suffered so severely
that the surviving inhabitants have left
their houses, their unburied dead-every-
dismay to open fields beyond the city.
At Certain points dead bodies, in some
cases uncoffined and naked. have been lit
orally piled up by scores waiting transport
alton to the burial places. One of the chol-
era hospitals on the old city wall. next the
sea had slide arranged down which the
dead bodies were shot into boats to be
buried in the sea. w
Two weeks ago one could not go into the
streets without meeting dead bodies hurried
off to burial, and litters with those struck
down in the streets at every turn. Even the
Golden Horn was covered with boats, carry
ing each from one to fifty dead bodies.
Those were dreadful days-enough to al
most oyerwhelm the calmest and most
fearless man. The very sight of all the
mourning and terror-of all the dead and
dying, for whom you could do so little
was enough to crush the heart. Things are
better now. The deaths do not exceed 20C
a day, and men are once more beginning to
breathe freely-to look about them and see
VINO is gone and who is left.
Only one death has occurred in the little
American colony here. The youngest son
of the Rev. Mr.. Washburne died two weeks
ago after few hours illness.
The American missionaries have devoted
themselves to the care of the sick and
dying among Che poorer classes, and un-
der their treatment hundreds of lives have
been saved. While the average mortality
in the city has been. about 65 per cent. Of
those attacked, under the treatment Of
the American missionaries the mortal
ity has not exceeded .fue per cent; oil
setting aside all those lighter cases which
might be classed as cholerine, the NOR
tality under their treatment in these
Ill, L., ~ 49, o. 4.
per cent. Its believed that this is a greater
success than has ever before been attained
in epidemic cholera. presume that they
will publish their method of treatment for
the benefit OF others. If they do so, will
forward you copy at once. l think in
dicated, in a previous letter, in general
way, what this method is. I.,r
The cholera has not followed any known
laws in its progress here. 1t has been sup
posed that 1t avoided high and airy locali-
ties, but here it has ragged with the greatest
severity in some OF the highest, best venti.
lated and most cleanly quarters of the city
while in previous epidemics not a single
case had occurred. ,,.s5,l',astt, a.., 80
Another singular fact is that the mortal.
ity among the Europeans has been much
greater since the decline OF the disease thar
1t was when it was at its hight. G
Another fact is, that those who have flee
from infected districts, in perfect health
have generally been attacked with, disease
as soon as they reached their new and before
that healthy place of refuge. ia l,..' ~.
1t is said that the swallows, and severa,
other kinds of birds, deserted the city at the
commencement of the epidemic, and are on.
ly now beginning to return-and believe
this to be a factwo il 5ssslapez
1t is also said that the gliding on the car
ques in the Golden, Horn and Bosphorus has
tarnished, especially in those localities
where the cholera has ragged most severely
There has been nothing strange porten.
| tous Or awful in the aspect OF the heavens
or the state Of the weather during, the cpl
demic On the contrary, the summer sl me hal hal
| nerfect Weather in Constantinople. Fol