Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1873-11-08
THE sCoURGE OF MEMPHIS.

became navigable the epizootic broke
ont, and ragged so virulently that trade
and industry were paralyzed. Then
came the smallpox, then indigenous
cholera the ravages Of which among
the already discouraged people were as
severe as those of the smallpox; and
before the cholera had run its course
came this most terrible of all scourges
to decimate the inhabitants of the
doomed city, and spread sorrow death,
and despair on every hand. These un-
parallelled calamities have drawn to us
the sympathy and aid of all the land.
Had we been left to ourselves we would
have been swept utterly out of existence.
for the plague is deadly, swift and sure,
and to be fought successfully only by
the most untiring vigilance. ceaseless
energy, and all the resources OF medical
and sanitary science which wealth can
place at our disposal.
The city has entirely changed in life
and appearance within the lapse of
thirty days. The shops are all closed,
not one being open north of Exchange
street.
TIE STREETS ARE NEARLY DESERTED
save by those who are engaged in sani-
tary work and in burying the dead.
There is no promenading, and the wo-
men who once made the sidewalks
brilliant with life and color are either
in their graves or have fled from the
town tor their lives. The few who re
main, when they are seen mt all, fit
rapidly and silently through the empty
Streets. their white and hayso.I faces
telling the rueful story of breaking and
broken hearts. Whole families have
been hurried into the vaults and tombS
of the cemetery within a few hours.
The city swarms with helpless little
children whose parents are dead, and to
provide anything like comfortable tenn
porary homes for these is one OF the
most difficult tasks of the benevolent
societies, which have done and are do
ING such noble work. The money
which is sent to them from all parts OF
the Union disappears rapidly-even
more promptly than it comes ln-and
there is ever m urgent necessity Tor
more.
THE PRICE OF PROVISIONS
has enormously increased, and for bread
which once brought tiYe cents loaf
fifteen cents are now demanded: the
milkmen have ceased their daily round;
meat can hardly he obtained at all; and
il really seems IS though to the horrors
of the pestilence the gnawlng pangs OF
hunger are to be added. The most
pressing demands for aid are made by
able-bodied men upon the resources Of
the disbursing authorities. The poor
creatures would be willing enough TO
work. but unfortunately there Is no
work for them to do, for business is
stagnated and they have been thrown
out of employment. On Saturday last
ninety applications for. relief were made
at the commissary depot, and not less
than 2,500 rations were distributed to
the sick. Wanness and misery, sick
ness. despair and death, dcface this once
beautiful city. All day long the noise
of hearses rafting through the streets
for they are driven almost rs fast as the
horses can 90, and even then cannot
dispose of the corpses rapidly enough
is heard, and at night fires cast their
glare t,pon the sky rs though Death
were celebrating his victory, and the
sound of wailing in the palace and hovel
strikes the appalled, sense of him who
ventures abroad in this unhallowed time.
The yellow fever has been confined to
10 particular locality, and rich and poor
have suffered alike.
Of all the inhabitants perhaps not
10000 sleep at night within the city
limits: the rest leave in the evening and
remain in the country till morning.
Many of those who thus have left have
been seized on the cars and perlshed
miserably at the various stations, for so
intense is the fear of the disease that
the country people turn from citizens
as from lepers, and will have nothing to
do with those who have any appearance
of being infected. Indeed,
TIE HTARTLEssNEss AND INIUNANITY
which generally accompanies such terri
bic plaques as this have been consplcu-
Gus here. The brood Of Satan-thleves,
pickpockets and burglars-seem to have
been about the only persons who have
thriven during the past month. They
have come from other cities TO prey
upon the dead and dying as upon the
living. Singularly enough, the drink
ing saloons have not found their account
in the plague, although during such
visitations drunkenness and debauchery
generally hold high carnival, the people
becoming reckless aud ready 10 drown
their fears in the diversion Of alcoholic
drinks. Out of between thirty and foT
tv of such saloons, which commonly
arc open from one years end to another,
all are closed but one, and this by no
means does thriving business. The
boldness Of the desperadOes issomething
simply wonderful. Unhappily, where
all are dying, the dead have often to be
left for hours without attention, and in
such instances it is often found that,
after death, their persons and rooms
have been robbed. Several arrests Of
men and women accused of such dread
ful work have been made, and it is like
" to 90 hard with the sacrilegious vii
lians. Some undertakers, in the press
of business, have refused to make re-
turns to the Board Of Health, and others
are accused Of hurrying corpses of to