Port Royal commercial and Beaufort County Republican. [volume] (Port Royal, S.C.) 1873-1874, 1873-12-04
The Domain Of Death.
The Terrible Two Months Of Lifo I'm
Shreveport ~ Told by Resident.

The Terrible Two Months Of Lifo I'm
Shreveport ~ Told BY q Resident.
Mr.. William Barnard, formerly Of
Cincinnati, and now manager OF the
Western Union Telegraph Company's
offices in New Orleans, was at Shreve-
port during the whole of the epidemic,
and gives the following account of the
suferings in that pestilence-ridden
city:
Shreveport lies north and south along
the Red River, and, before the days of
the pestilence, numbered II, 600 inhabi-
tants. The fever broke ont on August
28th. It became an epidemic about
Sept. 4th, and 5000 of the population
at once left the CITY, Since that time
Shreveport has been quarantined in
every direction. Mails for Texas are
lying there which should have gone for
ward two months ago. The lowest NOR
tality on any day of twenty-four hours
was three and the highest thirty.six.
Up to October 25th there had been '720
deaths.
The cause Of the yellow fever cpl
demic is not attributable to the Red
River raft. Not single case of fever
or any other sickness occurred among
the l40 men employed by the United
States Government in removing this OBJ
struction to the upper Red River
navigation. This fact in itself puts a
quietus on the theory Of several scien-
fists. The causes OF the fearful epi-
demic, after the appearance of the dis
ease, are to be found in the filthy con.
dition of the city and in the drying up
of the swamps and morasses in the
suburbs, producing the malaria. The
virulence of the contagion is directly
attributable TO the skinning of 200 car
casses Of dead cattle and their subse-
quent putrefaction on the river banks,
about two miles below the city. A
steamer loaded with cattle sunk at that
place, and the negroes towed the dead
animals ashore, where, after being
skinned, their carcasses were left to de-
compose. A southwest wind, wich pre-
walls during much of that season of the
year, carried the stencil which the burn
ing sun created into the city. This pre-.
pared the air for taking the infection.
The first case OF the fever, however,
was brought from New Orleans but,
under the influences mentioned, it re-
solved itself into the most virulept type
of Mexican black vomit. The percent
age of deaths at the most violent period
of the pestilence was 95 ont Of every
100. Sixty per cent. was about the
average, but there were never less than
40 deaths to every 100 persons attacked.
The symptoms began with violent
pain in the head and shoulders. Heavy
aches and numbness then attacked the
bones in the limbs. The fever then set
in and the pulse rose to 12O to 140 per
minute. The crisis of the disease ar
rived in about three days, when the
fever left the patient; then, if the kid
neys could be kept right, the case was
q hopeful one. All OF. the deaths 90.
CURED either from black vomit, which
is the complete putrefaction of the
stomach, or from the entire sequestra-
ton of the urinary organs. There was
hardly case of the disease where the
catheter did not have to be resorted to.
The period Of the disease was in each
case owing to the constitution of the
patient-the strongest did not survive
q week.
The treatment was simply hot mus
tard bath, with castor oil as cathartic.
Calomel, the old specific in this disease,
was entirely discarded. Fear killed a
great many. Recovery in the best cases
was matter Of GOODNESS, constitution
and good luck. The shortness of the
supply of nurses prompted the organi-
cation of the Howard Association in
Shreveport, Mr.. L. R. Simmons being
chosen President. The President of
the Association in New Orleans, Mr.. E.
F. Smith, came at once to Shreveport
with nurses and physicians. The
deaths among the nurses did not exceed
five. The greatest mortality among any
one sect was in the ranks of the Gath
olic clergy. They were very faithful in
their ministrations on the sick and the
dying. The Protestant ministers were
equally fearless of death and Just as in
defatigable in the discharge of their
sacred duty. The telegraph operators
were the next heaviest sufferers in pro-
portion to numbers, four out Of six
falling victims to the dreadful dis
ease.
There was no such thing as funeral
services at the churches or at the
graves. Every place of business was
closed except the drug stores and liquor
oo11ora The ohrrohau xuara o1nooH
The formalities of burial were veryfew.
The deaths were reported to the How
ard Association, which at once detailed
workmen to dig the graves. The coffin
was taken to the sidewalk in front of
the house. The corpse was brought
from the house, put into the box, and,
after being closed up, the casket was
placed in q wagon and driven at gal
lop to the cemetery. There it was de-
posted beside the undug or only par
TALLY completed grave. The grave
digger was left alone with the corpse
and his own thoughts. He got the box
into the grave as best he could. The
cemetery, and especially the Potter's
field, looks like a battle field with its
newly made graves.
There were no hearses to convey the
bodies with some show of decorum to
their last resting places. No mourners
followed the corpse to the grave. Those
VINO would have wished to 60 to the fu-
neral of q friend were required at the
BEDSIDE of dying wife or child. The
sick monopolized the attention of the
living; the dead were regarded as be-
yond all the help of love or affection.
Ginh and low. rich and DOOR. were