American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1873-11-01
LETTER FROM SHREVEPORT.
SHREVEPORT, La, Oct. 90, 1873.


nfr. Editor.-We are evidently
in the las. stages of the epidemic at
this place, and we begin to breathe
easier. The weather for the pas,
few days has been cold almost unto
frost, and we are in daily eXpecta-
ton of a good freeze. Then The mas
lcrial upon which the plague could
operate IS well-nigh exhausted.
Those OF our citizens who have es
capped an attack up to the present
'are>remarkably few; while not less
than hundred who had yellow
fever in former epldemicS, have been
stricken with this. But though the
epidemic power of the disease is
waning, we are day after day still
losing some of our most esteemed
citizens. In many cases the fever
seiZes upon Its victim with as dead
| ~ stroke now as at the first.
This morning, for instance, the first
news L learned was that three of
my nearest neighbors died during
the night, each the head of a family
all these were very malignant
eases. 1t has proved itself a most
treacherOus disease with us; there
is no period during the sickness, nor
indeed for month after it, when
the patient can be properly pros
nOunced out of danger; any little
imprudence in eating or exposure
is almost certainly followed by u
fatal relapse, and this for wee ks
after one is mp and about.
There is a little appearance of
business on the leading streets this
week, but 1t is more apparent than
real. The stores, in most cases, are
being opened for airing and fumiga
The convalescents, all more or less
feeble, are beginning to appear upon
the streets IN gOodly number. You
can readily discern them by their
hospitai-like appearance; some Lean
ing upon their canes, some bandaged
around the head, and most of them
distinguished by the unmistlkable
deep le.nOn-colored complexion. 1t
is estimated that fully One>fourth of
the entire white population that re-
NAMED here after the panic and ex-
Odus, which took place when the
fever first broke out, have fallen
victims to the plague. The GENE
terry here is so thick with new made
graves that it looks more like a great
freshly plowed field than the place
of heavy underground that it was.
l have been in epidemics before,
but never did l see exemp;lfied so
Innch of fhn nnI,lnnnso of hmm ~
nature as iel this. No battle field
of the Confederacy has a record
more glowing with the heroic than
this epidemic at Shreveport. L
Fave seen young men give them
selves to nursing and waiting upon
the sick, day and night, when it
was almost certain death so to do.
l have seen husbands working at
one neighbours bedside aud their
wives at that of another, until they
were stricken down themselves. 1
have seen young ladies tenderly
hoverin g, like very angels OF re.ey,
over the sick and the dying, then
watching with sleepless eye and
ministering with an untiring hand.
When priests sickened and died,
and when telegraph operators fell,
others from a distance and unaccli
mated, promptly supplied their
places until, in turn, they also, fell.
Masons and Odd Fellows, almost to
"A man, were faithful to one another,
and both orders have, as a conse-
quence, been sadly decimated. In
deed, many of the Shreveport dead
age worthy of having their names
added to the honOred roll of the
"nOble army of martyrs" There is
much, of course, that might be writ
ten to shade all this; but we wish
to forget it, and will not record it.
Nothing, however, connected with
the history of the plague at Shreve-
port is more worthy of being kept
green in the memory than the gen.
erOuS, the plethoric response which
the cities OF the West and North
made TO our cry for help. Such sub
stantial friendship in such a time OF
need, ought to go IA great way, with
a grateful people, i'll healing the
fretting sore of SectiOnaliSm. North
and South, we ought to he at peace
one with another. We are forever
each other. and hurting
of invective against
the creatures of our own prejudices.
Fer instance, before and during the
war we braided the Yankees as
such lucre-loving, cravenspirited
fellows, that they would never leave
their shops and wares to fight the
armed men of the South. But 1t
was all a mistake-they did fight,
and 1t does not lessen in the least |
our own record of valor to acknOwl-
,dge that they fought well and /
oravely. We are always accusing
5hese same people of avarice and
,Old hearteduess, but the response
which they have made to us of
Shreveport at once disprOves the
SANDER; and we ought to hasten to
correct ourselves and render justice
o them. And this, doubtless, we
.ould readily bring Oui selves to do
f it We're not for the presence among
Is of those political parasites from
he North whose greed for office
,eeps stirred up all the bad blood
Ii our veins, but who are no more
he true representatives of the
Northern people, than were the
.bummers" of the Federal army
of its rank and file
I w