New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-05-14

moss, ana In ner COOL, lmpaselv0 way, ut
tered her complaint.
While matters stood thus at the humble
household of the Euperts, that summer
scourge of the tropics, yellow fever, began
to spread among the inhabitants of New
Orleans. Tho rich, as usual, sought So
curity by fight, while the poor, pressed by
necessity, remained to brave it's terrors.
No ailment to which flesh is heir is more I'M
certain and eccentric. 1t changes its type
with the seasons, and, passing through
households. exempts some, slightly affects
others, but seizes its devoted victims with
90 deadly grasp that neither attentive
nursing nor medical skill can afford the
slightest prote ction. In its presence, men
become strangely accustomed to its eccen-
tricities and careless of it's warnings, Jo-
cosely, they call it yellow jack" chant
songs of "Bronze John and his saffron
steed.' and in their cups, "drink to the dead
alread y" and then ito the next that dies"
The dread felt of it abroad is soon lost at
home, except among the very timid, whose
turn has not yet come. Ordinarily, it runs
these days either stamps its victims with
its yello " brand, or gives them generous
exempt on for the future.
The early days Of September came before
the seourge manifested its presence in Ru-
ports little household, and the fair child
was the first to inhale its hot breath Those
| unyarying symptoms, pain in the head
and coldness in the kneee, were first COM
planned Of; then came fever which fired
her young blood and sent it coursing madly
through her veins. Rupert was alarmed.
He knew the danger which threatened his
darling, and the dread of losing her so in
tensifed the passionate fondness of his ma
ture az to carry it to the very verge Of in
sanity. He would permit no one else to
nurse her. From his hands she received
her medicine, and the fragrant orange leaf
ptisan, on which the genuine Creole nurse so
confidently relies. No one could be more
attentive-no one more unselfsh than he in
his great care for her.
Although the disease was running its
course in hundreds of households, it's
progress was nowhere more carefully
watched than in the ship carpenters hum
BILE dwelling. The third-day crisis was sue
&c ssfully passed, and the report of the doc
tor was encouraging. But the ninth-day
danger was yet to come. Bravely was the
little citadel holding out against a severe
attack, and strengthened, as it was, by
every appliance which q fathers skill and
kindness could command, it foste-ed hopes
of an ultimate triumph. As the days wore
on it was, however, found more and
more difficult to keep the surface Of the
patients body moist. The pulse, once
Gained down into something like normal
action, began again to throb wildly, and
the subtle eririt of quinine, invoked to
| drive the fever from its stronghold, beat
strange music in the patients ears. Her
dreams were confused and her overweight
| brain was troubled by deliriOus fancies,
| which seemed rather of heaven than of
earth, SO pure and innocent were they. 1t
was difficult for her, under the circum
stances, to distinguish the real from the
| imaginary; but when all things else be-
came uncertain and indistinct, her fathers
| love for her and her own love for him stood
out from the chaos, bright as the sun
| when first God said, Let there be light"
In his sleepless vigilance and absorbing
care the doating father overtasked his
| strength, a.d among those who watched
him closely the belief obtained that were
the child to die he soon would follow it to
the better land where the weary rest.
In doubt, and with but little to base ia
vorable hopes upon, the eighth day passed.
On the morning of the ninth the delirious
child spoke to her father of her little smil-
ing brother who had come from afar to see
her His face, she said, was shining, Oh so
brightly" and he had told her she was to 60
with him and be free evermore from sickness
and sorrow and suffering. How gladly che
wou Id 90 with him if her dear father could
90 too, she thought and said in her poor,
delirious way, for she felt sure that no
place could be a home to her if her father
| were not there.
1t was touching indeed to observe an ap-
proach at least to an intelligent intercourse
between the delirium of disease and the de-
lirium of devotion-the child in the fading
| light Of ea1 tn, catching the first CLEAN of
the eternal dawn, and the father, strong in
his earthly love, yet weak with his great
grief and his exhausted powers, striving to
wrestle with the Creator for q continuance
of his poor child's mortal life.
There was pause. A saffron tinge be-
gan to spread over the little patients face,
and che raised her head with a sudden
start. A convulsive movement of the
enuscles Of her stomach followed, and in an
instant an inky flow of black vomit told Its
tale of doom. The poisoned blood made
few more weak pulsations, the breath came
and went in dying gasps teebler and
feebler the little light fickered, and then
went out forever.
When the father found that he was
childless his heart died within him. His
grief was less boisterous than when his
little boy died, but it was far deeper and
left him more utterly disconsOlate. Worn
out with watching and loss of appetite. and
sickened by the blight which had fallen upon
his hopes, he could no longer bear up
against the sad burden of his unmerciful
disasters. For him life had no longer any
attractions, and he longed for death as the
prisoner longs for freedom. One grief had
trodden so persistently upon another's
heels that the burden overpowered him.
fearless and silent he sat; the fountain OF
his tears was exhausted and the desolation