The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1873-09-25
S. G.
II Thursday Morning, September 25. 1873
fYeilow jack"

Thursday morning, September %. 1879
HYeilow Jaok.''
The town of Shreveport. has for days
been drinking the cup OF affliotion to the
dregs. Situated on Red River, in the
Parrish OF Caddo, one Of the richest
planting districts in western Louisiana.
on the line of the Southern Pacific Rail
road, considerable portion OF which
already extends West of the town, it had
flourishing and growing trade, and the
great railway enterprise which is being
carried forward had given an unwonted
energy and activity to all kinds Of husi-
ness. Tho soourge of the Southern
coast, Yellow jack" has arrested all
this hustle and enterprise as effectually
as though the worst type of Asiatic
cholera had appeared there. 600 cases
and upward Of the disease. and thirty
odd new cases occurring daily. make q
fearful report to come from town of
some 1900 Inhabitants. TO add to. the
horrors Of the scene fwhers death stalks
on every hand, the ill-fated place is
almos. wholly outoaf from communica-
tion withiti world without, the citizens
fg to other places for safety, and ira
velers avoid the town as"4hough the
mere sight of i: was death. The de-
scription OF yellow fever given by dis
tinsaished author recalls Bo.accio's &C.
count of the memorable plague in Flo
renoe, OF De Foes graphic narrative of
the plague in London:
"Much anxiety and restlessness form
striking features OF the disease; the face
is flushed and swollen; the eye red, suf-
fused and muddy. The breathing is
sometimes hurried and irregular. some
times slow and embarrassed. The yell
lowness from which the disease derives
its name first tinges the eye, then
spreads to the neck and, breast aud last
to the extremitieA The color varies
from an orange ton bronze, and some
timss, In the last stage, approaches
dark mahogany. The average dura-
sion OF this stage OF the disease is said
to be from thirty-six to forty y-eight
hours. The second stage is murked by
an abatement Of. ali the unpleasant
symptoms, but the yellowness of the
skin becomes deeper in tint. The third
stage is oharscterized by prostration.
the pulse grows feebler. the hue of the
skin darker, the vomiting often iuces-
SAINT. sometimes Of colorless acid
liquor, in some bad ca, es of a dark sub.
stance, which induced the Spsniards to
give the disease the name Of ponaito
aegro. or black vomit. Sometimes
diarrhpa supervenes, the discharges re-
sembling the matter ejsoted from the
stomach. The skin becomes cold and
clamny, the breathing labored and ire
gular. the tongue black and tremulous.
and death closes the sosne."
There is a terror in the mere name Of
quarantine, which adds to the substan.
tial terrors OF pestilence. It has
sound as dismal aud ominous of ill as
exile and banishment. It seems to say
that the infected city is &n outcast, and
leper with whom bread il not to be
broken. What a dismal story is told in
the following paragraph from the Gal
weston lNs,0s:
after totday, a strict quarantine is to
be maintained Yat Hampstead against
Houston; Palestine has embargoea Mar
shall; Marshall refuses to- hold inter
course with Shreveport; Houston inter
diets Galveston; Galveston declines to
communicate with New Orleans; and,
except for the transmission of the
United States mails, tho lines of trans
portation,, both by sea and land, might
as we'll be abolished
The iron hand of the quarantine is
laid .radsly upon every high way, and the
infected towns are cut off virtually from
Observation-Disclosures with the commercial
and pleasuro-seeking public No tru-
veler now yisits the pestilential spots,
save those who 60 on missions OF mercy,
to nurse the sick or uct in the capacity
of physicians. The medical profession
has good reason to be proud of the ro.
cord OF its members in the annals OF the
great pestilences of the world Hippo.
crates, in the great plague Of Athens,
and Benjamin Rush. in the yellow fever
epidemic Of Philadelphia, are noble ex.
amples OF high.couled devotion to the
sarvice of humanity, which vast mum.
bers of good physlcians, unknown to