Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1871-06-01
Stricken by a Pestilence.

OOh utlSuUOIluB City Vi DuCuOS AIEtS
is suffering from a terrible pestilence. On
February the yellow fever broke out in
the northern part of the city, but did not
create any alarm at first, as during the en-
tire month the average mortality was only
about twelve a day. On March 1 there
were 35 fatal cases, and the number gradu-
ally increased, reaching 2Q4 on the 18th,
and 337 on the 2Sth. On Saturday, one
week ago to-day, there were sol inter
ments; on Sunday 749 bodies were count
ed at the cemetery gates, and the daily
average mortality for the week has been
450. The total number since the scourge
began is over $4,000.
Rich and poor are alike stricken with
the malady. Families have been broken
up and scattered. In some instances hus-
bands have abandoned their dying wives,
mothers have left their children to die
alone, and in many cases whole families
have been swept away. As many as five
or six corpses have been discovered in a
single house. A new cemetery has been
opened in the campo south of the city, and
tram railroad laid to it. The bodies are
carried out on the trucks, packed like
freight. There is no time to construct
coffins, and the stock on hand was long
since exhausted. In some instances the
undertakers have fled from the terrible
harvest of business that the pestilence has
caused.
The population of the city, which ten
weeks ago numbered at least 200, ,006 souls,
is now reduced to 10000. About 10000
have fled their homes, some taking refuge
in Montevideo and the towns up the Pa
rama River, but the larger portion are in
the campo, within a distance of from ten to
fifty miles of Buenos Ayres. The misera-
BILE mud huts of the peasants in the dis
tricts have been besieged with tenants
from among the wealth and aristocracy OF
the republic, and in some cases are re-
ceiving from $3.50 to $500 per month rent.
Families who lived in luxury two mouths
ago are now covering among these mud
huts and sleeping on beds laid upon the
floor of earth.
Those who remain in the city are mostly
of the poorer class, who have not the
means to leave, and the Public Commits
sion, philanthropic association, organized
for the emergency, is now proposing TO
send away on the railroad such as are not
yet affected by the fever. This commits
sion consists of some 500 members, many
of great wealth and good position. Sew
eral of them have already been sacrificed
10 their self-imposed duty, but the work is
carried ON nevertheless. The commission
has supreme control over everything in
the doomed city, and has just proclaimed
fast of twenty days. This has been re-
solved upon TO prevent financial disasters
or cmbarrassments among the commercial
houses, consequent upon the total stagna-
ton of business. of course all notes,
drafts, bills of exchange, and maturing
commercial paper of every description are
in abeyance during that time, and the
proclamation of the fast in fact, pro-
hibits business or labor of every kind.
On the 18th, the bank of London and
the Rio de la Plata closed its doors, and
will not resume business until the end oi
the month. A quarantine has been estab-
lished on all river towns, and for all prac-
ticable purposes Buenos Ayres is shut out
from the world. About twice a week
local vessels leave this port to convey 10
Buenos Ayres the mails and hospital sup
plies; but no person or thing, not even q
letter, is permitted to be brought back, and
the only communication the people of the
unhappy city can have with us is by tele-
graph. A few days since even tclegraphic
Communication was irregular and very un,
certain, as some of the operators at the
other end of the line died, and their
places could not be filled readily.
There is much division of opinion as TO
the origin of the fever, but it is pretty well
settled that it was brought in an Italian
emigrant ship which arrived from Genoa
and Barcelona in January last. As to the
cause of the spread and ravages of the dis
ease, any one who has ever been in Buneos
Ayres can readily see. The city is built on
the flat shore of the river, is without any
system of drainage whatever, and for near
ly two hundred years the inhabitants have
buried all filth, garbage and refuse matter
of every description beneath their houses
This was done by sinking cellar shaped
wells to a depth of fifteen or twenty feet
the sides being straightened with rude
brick work. These were reached by small
openings at the surface several feet in
depth, and through these apertures the filth
was deposited in the cess-pools below
When the sinks became full the mouth was
filled up, and new cesspool was dug else
where. The system prevailed everywhere
throughout the city, and to-day Buenos
Ayres is honeycombed by these filthy traps
-MonteCideo (April 15) Cor. ~ Y. Sun.