The New York herald., 1873-10-25
A DREADFUL SEWERAGE SYSTEM.
Scenes of Suffering in Silence
and Solitude.
MATTE STEVENSON.
Heroism of a Young Western Girl
Among the Dead and Dying.
A TOUCHING TRIBUTE TO HER MEMORY.

| MEMPHIS, Tenn, Oct. 20, 1873
| The impression prevails here now that the acme OF
| the yellow fever epidemic has been reached and
passed. and more cheerful feeling Is already be-
! ginning to obtain as q consequence. This change
for the better is probably attributable to natural
causes that is, TO an inherent disposition OF the
disease to run prescribed course, which 1t has
already accomplished; but 1t Is also highly prob.
| able that the amell0ration has been brought about
| by stricter enforcement OF sanitary precautions
and by better understanding of the character OF
/ the epidemic and the more careful pursuit OF the
indicated treatment. And here, it may not be i'm
proper TO say that in calamites OF this kind, New
Orleans, of American cities, furnishes both
the best physicians and especially the most
| careful ana experienced nurses. The various or
! carnations OF Memphis, including the HowardS,
Masons, Odd Fellows and religious societies, have
done, and are dong, vast amount OF good. but
they all candid enough to admit that since the
arrival OF Colonel Cooper-an old New Orleans
Howard-and his brigade OF nurses from the Cres-
| cent City that the labors OF the Memphis charities
are much more inteliigenty and successfully d.
rected than they were in the earlier stages OF the
! pestilence.
| THE OUTBREAK.
| The first case OF yellow fever this year in
Memphis was diagnosed on the 18th OF Sep
tember, in a locality known as "Happy Hollow"
| an appellatlon which would have fully justi-
fed Miss Capulet, had she been familiar
with the place, in propounding her cele-
brated conundrum, "What's in o name ~
"Happy Hollown could not have smelled more
disagreeably IT, mad been called Buzzard's Roost
1t Is low district OF s'made ground;" that is,
shallow part OF the river mas been filed in from the
banks, and il extends from Wolf River down to
Exchange street. great many OF the habitations
In this space Of the lowest order, some of them
indeed being mere boats covered with tarpauin,
and looking as If they had been stranded there at
highwater and had been unable to get away. Others
are shantes OF q kind like those few remaining
upon the Eighth avenue side OF the Central Park,
only the latter might be called Madison avenue,
and the Happy Hollow shanties should be called
Five Points. At the southern end OF the Hol-
low, however there some good build
ings, among them the Exchange, which
is used as a court house and Mayors Office. This
locality is the receptacle OF all the filth from the
higher portions OF the city which surround 1t.
Memphis has a worse system OF sewerage than any
other city In America. Nearly the entire city is
foul, and the Happy Hollow portion is just as
filthy as filth can make it, which, until it is burnt
up some other heroic publication visited upon
| 1t, must continue to be
NEST OF PEsTILENCE
| OF the direst kind The Health Board is doing all
In its power to disnect and neutraliZe the filth
but the city cannot be cleansed until it has new
and thorough system OF drainage. One alley has
been reported as nuisance fity-seven times since
last April, and 1t is said that, in the health
est times person cannot walk along the streets
without having his nostris offended by the foul
odors from easements, alleys, and even from some
OF the best streets. 1t is true that the city Is in
debt and cannot now bear much taxation for
municipal improvements, but the truth must be
known and 1t is to be hoped that the time will
come when an entire remodeling Of the system OF
vaults drains, sewers, csterns and closets will be
| sought for and acted upon.
From Happy Hollow, where the disease was con-
fined for ten or twelve days without producing
much alarm, gradually spread up to From. street.
thence to Second, Main, and other neIghboring
streets. 1t now began to rage more violently and
the proportion Of deaths was very large. The
cases occurred in widely separated districts, until
now the entire city may be said to be, as lar
human aid is concerned, wholly at the mercy or
rapaci0u5 DEATH
Some parts OF the city are nearly absolutely
day and night, without finding soul to talk to-
without finding an open door or seeing hight or
any other signs OF life. Death ana fright have
carried or driven the people all away. An owner
! OF property In what Is called the "nfected dis
trict'' directed his agent as matter OF charity
not to call on his tenants Tor pay the usual day
| and some time after, when going through the
nelghbornood, 1t was found that all his houses
i
| the plague had been driven OF by terror. Business
is at perfect standstil wnen, had 1t not been for
the epidemic, Memphis would now be in the flush
! OF trade and commercial activity. A large pro-
| portion OF the private residences are closed,
| giving those lunereal appearance which
| even have had no such sad occasion of mourning
within their walls. Most OF them, however, are as
Of disease and death Very few ladies' are met on
the streets. save those wearing the badge OF some
charitable society or the weeds Of mourning. The
street cars are never crowded, generally having
| but one or TWO passengers, and are scarcely more
numerous than hearscs. theatres, OF course, are
all closed, and so. too are more than two-thirds OF
| the barrooms. stopped in one OF the open ones
this morning 10 light my cgar-Colonel Cooper hav
ing told me that smoke was good disinfectant,
and not as a general thing dsagreeable to the
sick--when found the keeper engaged In writing
black border. The story was told without
the use or words, and, accomplishing my
| ably In some measure preventive or the disease,
but when 1t attacks known drnker 1t is almost
certain DEATH Woe and desolatlon are on all
sides, and can never be described by pen.
| Still there is bright side. Acts OF heroism and
promised TO erect tall, white shalt to the memory
OF young girl who was Yesterday laid In hergrave
at Elmw0od, and the name or
| MATTE STEVENSON
| Will be more deeply craven In the hearts OF the
citizens OF the stricken city, than IL can be the
marble column which win mark her resting place.
THIS little GIRL OF Bloomington, ILL, aged about
eighteen, was enjoying summer vacation with
deatn-dealing pestience here, she resolved to come
and do what she could Tor the sick and dying. Fear
| ing that friends and relatives would stay
| her II they knew her Intentions she gave no intma-
ton OF her purpose TILL she presented herself to the
| Towards as a nurse. A doctor applied for an
attendant to wait upon poor, dying woman who
was IN the last stage OF the fever and was suffering
! the pangs OF parturit0n. Matte was sent to him,
and, though greatly surprised at seeing this SEEM
| Ing cnild her words were such that he could not
reiuse her aid. She went to the bedside or the
| dying, and the attending physician reports that
she seemed to know what to do by Inspiration
| The destroyer, however, had too nearly accom-
! pshed his work. That night, with no one near
| but this volunteer nurse the mother and her
safrron-hucd babe were added to the list OF NOR
tality. Reporting the facts at the Headquarters OF
| the lI0wards she was sent TO the Lehner House 10
| await instructions. Before she had had time to
| rest she was called upon again. This time there
| was an old man and woman sick at No. 436 Main
street. That morning they had taken In charge
four orphans whose parents had died In the next