The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1867-02-02


nothing of the appalling alRictie The cry
for bread, not from one Door ercr, but
from whole city iull-not frofa howell,
but from every valley and hill who can
picture it! The soul shrinks'k aghast
from the spectacle and we whe III COM
Portable homes fain would bel that the
visitation must bass AWAY with day and
become a thing OF the past.
Perhaps, now, the keen ff i'll India
is past-tiat the efforts Of theglish Gov
ernmcut to relieve the Starvimultitudcs
have been adequate to the II bat. the
memory OF the fifteen monthst past will
long remain, finding its para in agony
and death, in the Florence que. That
great pestilencc, which stat out in the
history Of the fourteenth cey as one OF
Time niarums to irighten thman race,
ran over the face Of the cou, according
to the Italian poet Boccace statement.
like fire when it comes iDntact with
large masses Of combustibf till'its vic
tins were daily numbered bylsands. In
the vain hope Of escaping n it, various
plans were adopted. Whibmc walked
everywhere with odors anosegays to
smell to, " 'ior the atmoslc seemed to
them tainted with the stcnchcad bodies, .
others lived temporarily, sitheir cars to
all news Of the plague, andvcrted them
selves with music" Somed from the
plague stricken city brotlrom brother,
wife from husband, and Q parent from
child, for the terror inspi.ay the calamity
was 50 great that it driedp,he natural al-
fcctions. Another clasemained in the
city necessarily rcvelinl tavcrns and i'll
deserted private hous indulging every
brutal passion, and defycycry law, human
and divine; for those sc duCy it was to
enforce the laws were tselvcs either sick
or dead.
But, there was no liz Of safety. The
plague seized on the teratc man divert.
ing himself with his Ic, on the man in
haling his nosegay, ohc coward in his
flight, and on the rcvcin the midst of his
brutal revelry. They're buried, if noble
and wealthy, with sofhow Of ceremony,
but if of the middle lower rank, with
scarce any. These Oh breathed thes last
in the streets, or in thpwn houses, "whcre
the stencil that camein them first made
discovery Of their Is to the neghbor-
hood When the feyards were filled,
deep trenches we've and into them til
corpses were throvpied up III rows Gas
goods are slowed inllp,' ''for things had
come to that pass, linens lives were no
more regarded thape lives of so many
beasts
For five months this the state of the
city. In the aliat country, "thc poor
distressed laborcrstll their families, with
out either the aidPhysicians or the helr
Of servants" mgh seen ''lauguishing on
the highways, in fields, and in their own
houses, and dyinpther like cattle than
human creatures. The ripe corn was left
uneathered; the O. were allowed to roam
about at large, altvery man lived as il
each day would BIS last; that is, he be.
came as dissolute manners as were the
citizens. How nj persisted in the country
is not related, butthe city upwards of one
hundred thousaurere swept away, and
thus were the slfers, for the first time.
made aware thatir town had been so pop.
ulous. A more 'ul mode of taking the
census can scarcbc imagined.
Take away f:ohis picture all that lends
it Il horrible pictsluencss-thc music, the
rcvclry, the lonFaia Of corpscs borne tc
the place of whale burial, preceded by
the priests with III cruciiiN the sudden
deaths in the nj Of smiling corn lields
tIocks Of shccphts. and herds Of oNe'
turned loose: brave all of its human sul'
icring; add 10 twit deaths by pestiIcnct
death BY the lining. asonizing process o
starvation the'ies. whcn found near tht
towns, thrownlo paguc-pits. bat more
often left to rot the roadside or in tht
jungle, where llilcsh is dryourci by jack
ais, dogs, and lures: aud then magin,
to yourself. il l.an, the fate Of the poo
pie, not Of sif city and the country i'm
mcdiatcly surtding it. bu, Of icrr;toric
us large as Epean kingdoms, cndurin,
this accunulal Of horrors, and you vii
have Il faint no' Of the significance uf III
words "GlmineIndia.'
The Ian,incmmenced in the month q
April last in Ga and CANAAN, coast dis
tricts cXtcndinons the northeastern sid
Of The Bay bengal. From thence
spread upwQrato other districts of til
Bengal Prcsily, and downwards into 30
larry, Salem, imbatora, and North an
South Arcot --iricts in the Madras Pres
dcncy. In TN districts the distress WI
only less terri thaa in Bengal But, eve
in them the ld classes were described $
having 'harl rag TO cover their naket
ness, and hal any flesh to cover the
bones : thonds of cattle died for wal
Of water and turc, while those that su
vived rcsepbl'he miserable human being
in being merpving skeletons. In Or;ss:
Gadjam, and lnaporc, the distress wrougl
by the iamin0s felt in all its intensity.
In those dists it is supposed that IL
death,ratc wa thousand day for mar
months; butt number Of those who tn,
miserably peed by hunger and disea
will never bd.urately ascertaincd. Va
Numbers fedim the districts, some to f;
by the roadsiS where their unburied bon