The Baltimore County union., 1866-08-04

devour one another. 1t is estimated that
| in four years one-fourth of the entire popu-
lation Of Europe was swept away by. the
scourge. e. l5.l... il. .i.sg s.isslssl ass. ..4i
Before the pestilence invaded Christen-
dom, it is recorded, in a report made to the
! Pope at Avignon, that it destroyed twenty
three millions, eight hundred thousand per-
sons throughout the East in the course ofa
single year. sh4lsi a.f4e a| ia 'a
1 While the Christians remained untouch-
ed, their supposed immunity, since their
neighbors were suffering the extremity of
the malady, operated so strongly on the
minds of some of the heather princes, that
they resolved to.propitiate Heaven by en-
bracing Christianity The King of Tarsis
accompanied by great multitude of his
princes and mobiles, actually set out on his
journey to Avignon to receive baptism
from Pope Clement the Sixth but learn
ing on his way that the Christians, too, had
become victims to the destroyer, he return
ed home, with the loss of about two thous-
| and men, who the Christians most ungen-
erously attacked and cut fin the rear of
| his army. la5s
From Greece the plague passed into Ita-
ly. The Venetians, having lost 100000
souls, fed from their city and left it almost
uninhabited. At Florence the mortality
was terrific. There, says Boccacio, be-
tween March and July following, it is sup
posed, and made pretty certain, that up
wards of 100000 souls perished in the city
only whereas, before that calamity, it
was not believed to have contained SO ma
| ny inhabitants" Among those who fell
was Giovanni, the historian, to whose wri-
tings we have referred He was one of the
most distinguished men of his age and
/ his historical works are looked upon as
| correct and valuable. He was the annal-
ist of this pestilence almost to the day Of
his falling victim to it.
Many ofthe Florentines fed from the
! city without stopping to remove their fur
niture or secure their doors, so that the
palace to-day abandoned by the prince
might tomorrow become the abode of the
begger. The ordinary course of life was
changed some endeavored to avoid the
malady by leading an abstemious life, whilst
others rushed into all manner of eXcesses.
Many persons would carry with them per-
fumes, wherewith to rectify the tainted at
mosphere. The laws were disregarded, for
there were no officers to put them in force.
The universal terror was such that brother
! fed from brother the wife from her husband
and even the mother from her child, so that
many who fell sick could only obtain such
help as was supplied by the charity of
friends, or the avarice of servants, who de-
manded exorbitant wages, and often obtain
] ed them ct the CO st ofthier lives.
Great irregularities took place in the
burial of the dead. No train of mourners
or sad melody of chaunts accompanied the
corpse to its last resting place. Hired
men would hastily rush with the dead body
to the nearest place of interment where,
after few hasty prayers, itwould be COM
mitted to the earth. Many, especially those
of the poorer class, perished unattended in
their desolate garrets and cellars All
houses were entered every morning,
and the ghastly corpses they might contain
were taken out by the nieghbors and plac-
ed at the doors, whence they would be car
ried in the wake 'of some passing funeral
procession. The usual places Of interment
soon being filed up, trenches were dug, and
the dead placed in them by hundreds,
piled up in rows, " as goods are slowed in a
Ship" little earth being thrown in between
each row, until the trench was fled to the
| top. The country people died in the high
ways, in the fields, and in their own houses
''rather like cattle than human creatures :"
whilst the hocks herds, and faithful dogs,
driven from their homes, would wander
/ among the forsaken harvests, and, after
| they had filed themselves, return at night.
"What magnificent dwellings," remarks
Boccaccio in concluding his narrative,
"what noble palaces were then depopula-
ted to the last person What families ex-
tinct What riches and vast possessions
left, and no known heir to inherit What
number of both sexes, in the prime and
vigor of youth, whom in the morning nei-
ther Galen, Hippocrats, nor Esculapius
himself, but, would have declared in per-
feet health, after dining heartily with their
friends here, have supped with their de-
| parted friends in the other world "
France next became exposed to the raw
ages of this plague AT Ayignon the NOR
tality was horrible. When it is first broke
out there, no fewer than sixty-six of the
Carmelite friars died before anybody knew
how, so that it was imagined they had mur-
dered one another. Of the members of the
English college at Avignon not one was
left alive and of the whole inhabitants of
the city not one in FIVE. The malady pro
ceeded northward through France, till it
reached Paris, where it cut off $4,000 peo-
pie. sae
About the same time it spread into Ger
many, where its ravages were estimated at
the enormous amount Of l2,400,000 souls.
| At Lubbock alone, according to the concur
rent accounts ofseveral writer's, 1000 per-
sons were swept away in one year. ofwhom,
| 1000 are reported to have died in the
space of four hours. Here the superstition
was such that rich merchants sought to
propitiate Heaven by bestowing their use
less wealth upon the monasteries. Butthe
monks refused to receive it, and closed their
gates against it whereupon the tardy PEN
itents threw their tainted treasure over the
walls that surrounded the sacred edlhces
The fearful scourge reached England
about the beginning of August, l348, when
it appeared in the seaport in the south
west of the kingdom. The disease few
| from place to place in the west and south,
reached London on November lst, and Il,
nally spread itself all over the land, scat
tering everywhere such destruction, that,
out of the whole population, hardly one
| person in ten was left alive. In the neigh
! borhood of London large fields were en-
ployed as burial places, and fifty or sixty
would be inferred in single pit In Eng
| land, too, as in Florence, there was a total
dissolution of the bonds of society rela-
tive fed from relative the physicians re-
fused to attend the sick, and priests forbore
to administer the sacrament or absolye the
dying peuitent so fearful were all of COM
| ing in contact with the affected. But with
all this precaution the dreadful visitant
would overtake them. There was no place
in which they could hide that it did not
enter. sla eenie
The plague commenced in 1349, and by
| the month of August in that wear it had