Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-12-14
MElEPEIS APPEAL
slrrRn,E noRvINa. DEC. ~. Is7e.
HORRORS or STALLION, AND OF
FHlE UTVY- Governments.

uoRRORz or suALLPox. AND OF
TEFE CTTY.s GOVERNMENT.
Now that ap-prehensions Of danger in
cident to the prevalence Of smallpox
have been dissipated, there is no harm
ia adverting 10 incidents affecting the
.haracter and conduct Of men, as Illus
lrated by recent events in this city. In
one instance a victim Of the disease was
abandoned i'm his utmost need even by
a whose affection has ever been
deemed i~ndestruetible. Another aban-
toned 10 despair and death her own son.
He was found by a charitable clergy
man. complaining at first Of slight ILL.,
ness. Smallpox was developed, and
the mother, who was living in the
house. learning the fact, left her child TO
his fate. Not only did the mother fly,
but his own pastor of his own church;
The sanetified pastor keeping his sacer-
dotaI carcase safe alike from the prOba-
aility Of infection, and from the posi-
hility Of heaven. a kind, good, brave
preacher, an accidental visitor at the
house, sat by the bedside, watched the
sufferer to the last, and closed his eyes
when he died. 1t would seem that a
municipal government, with any share
Of intelligence, or fitted for any task i'm
posed by a city's necessities, would have
adopted measures which civilization APP
proves everywhere, to ward off such a
calamity. The unthinking Mayor, alb
sorbed in money-making, rocked Of
nothing. sees nothing, and knows moth
ing. that is not scented out by his own
single sense of mOney-getting-his in
comparable selfshness.
During the war of the Revolution there
was no act of the British Government
which so aroused the indignation of our
~forefathers and of the civilized world as
line confinement of American prisoners
Of war in hulks Of vessels whose crews
were infected with smallpox. The re-
cital Of this incident in American his
tory has made school-boys shudder
through century.
The jews of old, when a horrible in
lection like smallpox pervaded Jerusa-
lem, gathered the sick and confined
them TO a spot dedicated to suffering
and death. Here in America, ven in
Memphis, in a supposed civilized, Chris
tanned age, country and city, it was
known through weeks and months that
the foul disease, borne upon the wings Of
every wind that swept down from the
North, must soon difFuse its poison
everywhere. The master of our public
fortunes who, when a candidate, caused
such charming statistical tables TO APP
e showing how easily he could pro-
rect the public credit from worse than
smallpox, adopted 10 single p~recaution-
airy measure. The wretched poor, whose
penurv drove them to the City Hospital
that public charity might supply their
needs and minister to their anguish, dis
covered that they became, if incapableo OF
further flight, voluntary victims Of
I0athsome rOttenness. The sick and
diving Of fevers and Of dropsy and rheu-
lnatism were herded with lepers or COM
PEELED to go forth helpless, penni-
less, homeless, to die uncared
for like wild beasts. The weak
mother fled, and We may pity her
when her son fell q victim to the ghast-
" contagion; the Jews burned dead
bodies, and a Gehenna received ghast-
IL corpses, and there was a special To-
caIity beyond Jerusalem's confines as
signed TO the exclusive occupancy OF
iouI c0ntagion; but in this blessed city |
IF Memphis, in an age of learning and
uoasted humanity and civilization the
uretched victims of dreadful disease
have no thought given them by the man
who is the head and frontO those wecall
fathers. There was never a crime
defined in the worlds history which so
shocked the s~ensibilities of u race as
The diffusion Of smallpox amongst help
less prisoners by a Government of which
our Mayor proudly proclaimed him.
self a subject when danger was incurred
ly those who asserted fealty to the
south. There was neve a national
crime so abhorred as that which made
mauacled soldiers inmates Of smallpox
poisoned ships. And yet the mother
hat abandoned her child, vas an
angel before Gods throne, the Jew was
a solomon who guarded the people
sgainst contagiOn, and the British
who di6fused death among prisoners
to be lauded for their deeds, if we
may find il in hearts to pardon the
stupid master Of a city's destinies who
makes no apology for his Outra-
offences against every law of hui
manity hedging in the Office which he
lishOnOfs.