Litchfield enquirer., 1871-08-03

liman' 's!'- Transatlantic Magazine. .55
 THE PLAGUE IN BUENos AYREs. We are in receipt of a pamphlet published in Bue- nos Ayres and compiled by Rev. T. B.. Ash, B. A., Chaplain of the British Lega-
 tion at that city, which gives minute ac- count of the origin and spread of the aw- ful plague, now happily at an end, which
 ragged in that city from March %, 1870, to June 8, 1871. The author remained in the city during all that time. In view of his experience he says: t.4a .s as1
 'Verily there is nothing more appalling than pestilence, nothing that shows more forcibly the frail tenure of human life. and
 nothing which brings out in such bold re- lief the noblest feelings of the better class of men and the hard d-hearted selishness of others"
 Some idea of the terrible fatality of the epidemic may be- gathered in this extract:
 ''At the commencement of the present year our population was little over 18O, GOO sous; of these about two thirds fled during the epidemic, more than 20, 900 others per- ished, and at one period, while there hard ly remained 4O,000 people in the town, the number of sick exceeded 1000 and the
 mortality ranged from 400 to 600 per day more than per cent of the inhabi- tants." F-s .......
 MT. Ash devotes chapter to the origin and causes of the plague. Its perusal in clines one to wonder not only ct the long delay in the terrible visitation, but that the mortality did not reach the limit of com plete extermination. The city, it appears,
 waS seeking with filth: the stench when the wind blew from the South occasioned yom- iting; and the eff1uvia from the ''vasura, . or stuff from the scavenger's cart. causing the whole city to steam like a dung hill whenever hot sun came after fall of rain. While the city was thus fermenting and steaming s'the water of the River Plate was so poisoned by the liquid from the Riachuelo that the dead fish covered the roadstead and river as high as Palermo; yet this same water was what the, citizens of Buenos Ayres had to drink. Add to all this the fact that there was an utter lack of drainage facilities, that the water after licking up the garbage and filth of the streets ran into stagnant wells which hoEeycomb the whole city, and it will be seen that state of affairs more conducive of pestilence ceuld hardly be devised. t. , The plague first appeared in the lowest quarter of the city, and for some time was confined to the dregs of the population in San Telmo. But early in March it appear. ed in the more respectable localities, and with increasing fatality, and by the middle of the month it became general. The last week in March the mortality reached three hundred and fifty per day. The grave dig. gers were unable to meet the demand for graves, and cofins were quite out of the question. Narrowing details of the prog ress of the disease are given; how people died for lack of medical attendance; how panic-stricken and superstitious were the poorer and ignorant classes: how in the haste of burial care was not taken to ascer- tain beyond doubt whether death had re- ally superyened- much more to the same purport, revealing the worst as we'll as the best there is in human nature, since instances are cited showing the most heroic self-sacrifice on the part'of female nurses, sisters of charity, priests and clergymen, along with others where fathers and moth. CTS are found abandoning their children, and 0ice rersa, without thought except for their own safety. On Easter Sunday, April 10, the disease reached it's climax, the number of interments on that day be- ing 54O. All through Easter week the mortality continued at appalling figures. The South Cemetery was filled, new one opened. and the old strewed with a layer of lime. More than 22,O00 graves had been filled in the South Cemetery during three months prior to the closing of it's gates The condition of affairs at this cri- sis is thus described: ase i 9e -dae D The aspect of the city by night was even more awe-inspiring than by day. The silence was rarely broken but by the hol- low sound of vehicles taking of the dead. or the tinkling of g little bell, as the Bless ed Sacrament was conveyed to the dying. Fires might be seen here and there-the furniture, &c., of infected houses that the police burned in the streetsa and courtyards. Watering carts made the rounds. scatter ing disinfectants, such as coaI-tar; but the plague seemed to mock such remedies, for death was busy in every house where any inhabitants yet remained"
 On the 18th of April the plague began visibly to decline, and the latest reports rep resent it as nearly extinct. But it vii take years to repair the ravages of the epi- demic and give to Buenos Ayres her for mer wealth and prominence.
 The ''local" of the Chicago Republican says: saThe newest method of making an honest living is to go round at night with an accomplice, and play tom-cat under the windows of irascible bachelors. Then they throw boots and boot-jacks, and hair-brush- es, and crockery, and things at you, and you pick them up and sell them for