Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1872-09-26

had been burned over, fought over, camped
over and marched over, began to pick up
little, and the angel of peace smiled upon the
mountain hamlet for the first time in four
years.
But with peace did not come the quiet, con-
tentment, prosperity and happiness to the dis
tracted people of the Hawks Nest that had
been expected. The small pox put in an ap-
pearance and ragged with great fury as long
as it could find unvaccinated people upon
which to feed. After this insatiate disease
had stricken all whose systems we're in the
least predisposed, it departed, leaving its
marks upon the faces of many Of the young
and fair, which are seen to this day.
After the small pox had exhausted itself
as before shown, for the lack of material, the
hog cholera took possession Of stricken Chat
tanooga and played havoc with the hogs, as
the small pox had played havoc with the peo-
pie. Hardly a hog out Of a population of two
thousand and one hundred was spared. They
died in the streets, on the river bank, and
along the back alleys. And there was not
pen in which there was not one dead.
When the hog cholera had spent its force
and could find no more swine to conquer, the
chickens began TO take the gapes and die.
Many an old cock that had survived the war,
the cravings of the flesh and the deep-laid
schemes of the hawk-only lived through all
these calamities and changes to dieof the gapes.
The next calamity that came upon Chatta-
nooga was of a different variety from any of
the rest. It was more than even the small
pox, the hog cholera or the gapes in chickens.
1t was financial calamity. The city treasu.
rer got in all the taxes he could and then got
out himself One fine morning the people of
Chattanooga awoke to find their treasurer
gone and with him their money. Barrel y had
they recovered from this shock when the
rains began to fall and the floods to come. In
March 1867, the devoted city was visited by
flood greater than any Of which history
gives any account, if we may except that one
commonly spoken Of as Noah's food. Ten
nessee river got on spree and rose to the
depth of ten feet in the business portions of
the city. Every interest suffered. A great
many people improved the opportunity to get
drunk and several remained 80 during the en-.
tire flood. After the food was the mud, and
that might be accounted the fifth calamity.
Its average depth for one month was three
feet two inches. None but men with long
legs could get about. ',...,,. ~,
After the food and the mud, to say moth
ing of the other calamities, had left Chatta-
nooga we'll nigh prostrate, an insane man
came here and started daily paper. This
evil, however, was of short duration, as such
evils usually are in Chattanooga. ..':......
Then came Stanton, who built big rail-
road and then bursted. When he went up,
as it were, a good many Chattanooga mer-
chants went up with him. They became "re.
tired merchants" of the sort that retire out
of the back window while the sheriff comes in
at the front door. -. ..
But under all the adverse circumstances,
the place continues to look up, continues to
improve and spread itself out over barren
places. Real property is held at high 6g-
ure, and those who have town lots manifest a
disposition to hold them. It is said that this
will bethe Pittsburg of the South, and hope
it will, not so much because am in the least
partial to Chattanooga, but because the South
needs Pittsburg so bad. And if she had a
Chicago, Cincinnati and Cleveland, it
would do no harm. ''''' MEMO"