Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-10-14
The Odd Fellows out Of Funds.
A Wall for Christian Charity.
Forty-six Deaths sunday. {
pispatches OF saturday.

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Dispatches Of Saturday.
Special to the Cincinnati Commercial
MEMPHIS, Oct. 11.--Our once fair city is
one vast charnel depot. As
yet there Is no apparent decrease of the
fatal sickness, and the situation daily seems
more and more deplorable. Large stores
in business centres bsretofore uninfected,
are closing up, and their Respondent keep
ers leaving for healthier latitudes. Nearly
all the residences on our most frequented
streets are shut, and their occupants have
fed from the pest. AS the disease appears
h new neighborhoods, the few remaining
families pack and depart at once. At night
the streets are totally deserted, and
gloomy, death-like silenes reigns, while the
dark, sombre-l looking buildings, with closed
doors and blinds and no signs of life, cause
the scene to present hopeless, melancholy
aspect, and the tales of distress and woe re-
lated by e wandering "HoWard" or clerical
afford no relief from the general
depression. Many of the houses In the
First Ward have lost all their occupants
from death or desertion, aud when the last
inmate was hauled out, the police closed the
premises, leaving the infected bedding and
contents to emit sickening odor. With
out the aid of the putrid and foully-stained
bed and wearing apparel of the sick, dying
and dead, the unpleasant effinvia of hun
bred varieties of disinfectants is met at eY-
cry turn, and often exercises an overpower
ing effect on weak nerves and unsettled
stomachs.
The new Board of Health are busy with
hundreds of hands and carts, sweeping and
clearing the streets, but as yet the alleys
and byways, which are the flthiest entre-
pots, have not been touched. The palady
has spread beyond the checking power Of
human skill or labor, and all such efforts
will prove futile. The only effective anti.
dote will be cold snap and several success
sive frosts. This viii hardly result until
the close of the present month. The Gas
Company notify many Customers to pay
their bills promptly or their supply will be
cut off, and then often find their late Gus
toners dead or fed. Yesterday saloon
keeper near the Overton Hotel, who had
aided in carrying twenty-one dead bodies
from their beds to the hearse, and after be-
ing worn down with watching and nursing,
wss notified to pay or lose his light. As
his house has been closed for weeks, and
all around are dead, he returned curt and
appropriate reply. Il is pleasant to note,
amid hundreds of acts of inhumanity there
are thousands of unselfish sacrifices that
prove TIE performers to be heroes and ben-
efscsors to mankind. Three Catholic
PRESS, five Sisters of Mercy, one minister,
four policemen, three physicians aud some
thirty or more of the Odd Fellows and
Mssons have succumbed, and lie under the
sod.
A visit to the Catholic Cemetery, last ev-
ening, to attend the funeral of beautiful
maiden Of eighteen, disclosed narrowing
spectacle to your reporters eyes. Many
hundreds of freshly raised hillocks toll
plain but silent tale Of deaths ravageS,
while at frequent intervals sorrowiDg
mourners were seen kneeliDg in supplica-
ton and with fearful eyes praying to the
Almighty for the souls of the departed and
comfort in their personal af1ictiou. Flowers
and numerous mementoes strewn upon
fresh made graves, and half dozen or
more squads at the work of interment told
the story of the pest lence; with the public
highway leading toward the city covered
with two continuous lines of vehicles, the
returning travellers moving rapidly, and the
other on trot exhibited the stolid indiffer-
ence of the Jehus and their hurrying desire
to hunt another funeral.
The railroads are granting halffare passes
to the moneyless, and the relief committees
labor necessarily to help the distressed. An
idea of the prevailing want may be inferred
BY stating, that long before the relief offices
opened this morning several dozen sufferers
crowded the door waiting to be aided with
10 ard
Society have nearly two hundred nurses at.
work, and more are coming from other CT
ties. Odd Fellows, Masons and other Or
ders also have numerous corps of nurse S
busy.
The aggregate deaths since the fever
broke out up to noon to-day is 1852 persons,
and the usual ratio of mortality would thus
make over 1000 sufferers. Reports made
tonight place the number of fever sufferers
now under treatment at about fifteen hum
dred. The total mortality to-day was fifty
one, of which forty-six were from fever.
Among others who died to-day was Judge
j. T. Swsyne, prominent and well known
citiz IN. Joe Potts, an Italian, died in a
house No. 80 Main street, and his corpse
after being unattended twenty-four hours,
still lies unburied. A Howard found it out
too late last evening to do any good. a
man in the old Post-office Building sent to
the Towards for a nurse, and when one
reached there the patient was dead.
Special to the Louisville Courier-Journal.
The death rate is alarming, when it is
considered how many have left and are
leaving, and the number of new cases re-
ported daily is IS great as at any time since
the fatal appearance Of The disease. 1t is
reduced now to fact in which there is little
consolation, that no abatement of the mala-
dy may be hoped for till lack of msteria
forces its subsistence, or spell of hard
freezing weather sets in. Crowds continue
to leave, and each days report, as chron'
icled In the papers, seems to renew the
panic among those remaining. The Ma
sonic fraternity seem to have bad the heavi
est burden to carry, and since the beginning
of the present epidemic have buried twenty
of their members, and have now ifty-tWC
cases in the hands of their relief committee
They acknowledge the receipt of most liberia
donations from their brethren abroad, but
moi sufficient to meet the demands upon
them for assistance. They appeal to their
brethren everywhere for more help, anC
ask that all contributions for aid of the
Masonic fraternity be directed to A. j
Wheeler, editor of the Masonic JeaUel ana
Secretary of the Masonic Relief Board.
Sunday.
MEMPHIS, Oct. 12.-The weather re
mains unfayorable. 1t was a warm day
and the murky, chilly evening has succeed
ed; and although few new cases are reported
by the physicians, we hear Of them in ditfer
ent localities from those heretofore reported
The disease is now on every street through
out the city, and although everything posi-
BILE is done to prevent the spread of the con
tsgioD, it moves on regardless of all the
combined efforts of our medical fraternity
good advice, disinfectants, etc. The city
has been unusually quiet, but few peopl'
appearing on the streets, the larger portion
Of the community taking advantage of the
holiday and leaving for a brief respite il
the country. Those thai have remained
have remained have wandered through thu
streets like lost sheep, searching in vain TO
q breath of air untainted by lime, csrboli
acid, or other disinfectants.
Five Mas0ns Buried.
All the rslief societies continue to be &C
tive in attending to the wants of their mem
bers. The Masonic fraternity report bu
one new case to-day. They have burie'
five, and have sick nearly sixty. Thei
funds are nearly exhausted.
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