, 1872-11-02

| -T-~--~~ 3~NN~@SA
chance. There is no element Of
chance, however, in the visitations Of the mise
ries. There is mastery method in their combi-
nation, anda mathematical exactneas in the CAL
culation Of their direfu1 orbits. Having run
through complete programme Of fires, floods,
tornadoes, and earthquakes, and an equally CON-
plete series of criminal conYulsion during the
past four or five years, the world now seems to
be coming down with ailments Of various de-
scriptions. and both it's two-legged and four-leg-
ged population are sending for the doctor with
cheerful nnanirnity; if not with pious resigna-
ton. Persia and India are sick abed with the
cholera, and are rapidly spreading their horrible
complaint all over Europe. The latest cable
dispatches report it as firmly seated in Russia,
Prussia, and Hungary. In Gumbinnen, town o1
Eastern Prussia near Konigsberg, it has broken
out with violence, and several fatal cases are
reported. At Buda, Hungary, it is making
serious ravages, and, from the location of that
ancient city OF tho Danube, it must seriously
threaten Pesth and Vienna, the former of which
is directly opposite and the Inter only 100 miles
away. Meanwhile, the dreadful scourge has
sent ont scouts to prepare the way for the ad-
vance Of the main body, and one Of these scouts
has appeared suddenly at Wexford, Ireland, cov-
ering Dublin on the one hand and the ocean On
the other, and as Wexford does large shipping
business, it is not impossible that some of the
choleraic apant-courTiers may take passage uia
Dublin and Liverpool for our shores, and
make their appearance here in the
early spring. At stonington, Conn.,, there
is Tessel-load Of yellow fever, freshly brought
from San Domingo, and blown into that quaint
old port in stress Of weather. 4 slip in the
Quarantine regulations may effect landing for
Yellow Jack, and there is no better traveller
when he once. gets his foot On terra frma.
With the ravages Of smallpox the country is
already familiar It has had its own way in al
most every large city Of the North, and when
last heard from Was in st. Louis. An Eng
lish writer, Captain Butler, Fellow Of the
Royal Geographical Society, has just published
q narrative Of his travels and adventures in
British America, in which he states that the
rayages Of the smallpox among the Indians Of
the Saskatchewan, during the past year, have
been terrible. he aayss "The tribes are fast
vanishing before it's ravages. British observers
who have seldom passed severe COM
ments on the fato Of the poor Indian in the
United States, are themselves beginning to look
with complacency on the tentire disappearance
Of the Indians in British America as q sso1ution'
of the troublesome questions which make their
existence such an embarrassment" As proof
that all the world is sick, what man is there
among us who can step forth, lay his hand upon
his heart, and affirm that he hasn't got cold,
compress at night on his chest, or plaster by
day upon his back; that his laundry bill isn't so
per cent larger than usual, simply in the item OF
handkerchief; that, in fact, he isn't in the COLI
diton Of Heine's divinity, who implored the
1sher-girl to make him cup Of tea and rum
for he had the "divinest of catarrhs, and
cough that might last him foreTer?" It is q
pleasant time for doctors, druggists, and
old nurses, and mint and penny
royal, rosemary, hops, and SIENNA, and other good
old herbs Of grace, are the only floral tributes
which snuaing, hacking man can conscientiously
pay to the waning year. At the present rate Of
bifurcated epizootio progress, December will ex-
pire between sneeze and q bark, if men do not
expire before December comes.
But man is not alone in his misery. That pa
tient, uncomplaining, badly-used drudge, who
ministers to his pleasure and does the larger
share Of his work, is practically sympathzing
with him, and bearing. his miseries side by side
with him. In most Of the large cities the
streets are either destitute Of horses altogether,
or they filed with wretched, tottering beasts,
dragging oYerloads, and perhaps falling dead in
their harness. The great marts Of trade and
commerce are supernaturally silent. The docks
are groaning under mountains Of freight which
cannot be moved. The markets are filed with
decaying meats, and vegetables, and fish,
which the marketmen cannot deliver to their
customers. Warehouses are gorged with goods,
and vessels are unable to discharge their car
goes, Street-cars, omnibuses, and public car
riaees of all kinds have had to suspend, and men
of all conditions are on the same pedestrian
level. Living men get with difficulty to living
homes and dead men find as much difficulty in
getting to their long homes, and all this time
the stables are filed with sick horses in various
stages Of their dreadful malady. The disease
has commenced to appear in our own city, and it
is useless to disguise the fact that, before the
week is over, under the influence Of the present
damp and unwholesome weather, we shall be as
badly oil "a the Eastern cities. The only gleam