Middletown transcript., 1870-05-28

ooh darker than the ravens wing,
Or murky cloud, or midnight pail,
Or dungeon, dank and desolate,-
The pestilcnce, with bcding wing outspread
Thrall and ai1righted all the land"
The first visitation of the Asiatc chole-
ra to the western continent occurred in
the summer of the ever-memorable year,
1882. This scourge of the nations has
revisited this country several times since,
but with less virulence than attended its first
attack. 1t commenced along the northern
and eastern confines of the continent, and
spread south and west, visiting every por-
ton of the country. The Canadian towns
and cities were the first to feel its ravagcs.
1t then rapidly extended to the northern
and eastern sections of the United States,
and was most fatal in the cities, and in
the crowded and filthy lanes and alleys,
where dense population was huddled to-
gether in small and poorly ventilated ten
emcnts, living in squalor and crime. The
debauchcd and filthy dwellers in the slums
and brothels were the especial victims of
this disease, which riotcd in all such To-
calitics, and marked them for sacrifice.
The writer was resident of Philadel-
phia, at that time. The first cases report
cd by the board of health excited but lit
tie alarm, and attracted but little public
attention. From three to five cases
day, were at first reported, official
ly, upon the bulletin-board. Then, the
daily report of the board of health, grad
ualy went up to ten, fifteen, twenty, thir-
ty, fifty, until it reached the appalling
number of one hundred and seventy ight
cases per day! These cases were only
those reported by the board of health.
Many victims sickened and died in two or
three hours, and were buried, without the
knowledge of the board of health, and Of
course, were never reported. Water street,
Second street, Shipper street, and many
other filthy streets and alleys of the cl-
ty, were boarded up, and no one allowed
to enter them, so fatal had been the rava-
ges of the pestilence in those localities,
while the wretched survivors lived in tents
provided by the city authorities, upon the
outskirts of the city. The pail of death
seemed to hang over the city, during the
latter part of July and all through the
month of August. Places of public amuse
ment were closed, business was well nigl
suspended, and men looked anxiously intC
each others faces, when they met, uncer
tain whether they would ever see each 9th
er again. At night, quiet reigned through
out the city. People kept within doors
. and only the football of the physician, th'
nurse, or the messenger, seeking relief fo
the suffering or tae dying, echoed alon!
the pavement; and the rumbling of th
wheels of the dead-cart or the hearse, onl,
broke the stiffness of the night. Fresl
meat, vegetables, fruit, and many othe
articles of diet, were forbidden; and tea
crackers, salt ham and fish, constitute,
!, the regimen of most persons. Even waite
was not drank without the addition of
drop or two of the spirits of camphor, 70
) which purpose an ounce vial of that fui,
was worn in the pocket of everyone; and
: as further preventive of cholera, every
body wore upon the pit of the stomach
burgundy-pitch plaster. Wbiskey, anC
all other Intoxicating drinks, were tabooed
for the cholera seemed to have specia
affinity for such, and no class of peopl
. suffered more by it than the hard drinkers
Many became temperate, through fear, an
! those who persisted in their excessive po
tations, were suddenly taken off withou
remedy People fell and expired in tn
!. street. Among the number thus sudden
= ly snatched away by the fell destroyer
d was the daughter of an ex-mayor of tn
city. Many died upon litters while bein
conveyed to the hospitals provided for tn