Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1877-07-21

Persons Tearing the cay J0r me sum
mer can order the DAILY LEDGER
at 75c per month or too dollars for
three months, in adUqnce, Nth the
privilege of changing pOstO6ice
VITALITY AND LONGEVITY OF MEM
PH1s PEOPLE.
A prominent life insurance com
pany which withdrew its agency
from Memphis on account of the
yellow fever scourge which struck
us four years ago, has lately rejected
the application Of one of our cltl-
zens sojourning in Wisconsin, on
the ground that he resides ten
months in the year in Memphis
place too unhealthy to take insur-
ance risks. This announcement
will be received with a smile Of in
credulity by the Oldest inhabitants
of Memphis, and we have many OF
that class. The company has evil
IDENTIFY been misled by q panic
stricken agent who wanted to carry
the business of the place with him
when he removed to another city.
It's officers must think we have yell
low fever here all the year round.
1t is only within the last few years
that mortuary statistics have been
kept in Memphis. Former boards
Of health were not paid, or fur
nished means or authority to
keep such records; but for
four years we have had competent
and efficient board clothed with all
necessary authority to enforce re-
ports from undertakers, physicians
and others. The record is as near
correct as in any cityin the Union.
What does it show ? hat the death
rate per thousand inhabitants in
Memphis is two less than in Mil
waukee, four less han in Nashville
and six less than in New York, and
so on through the list. There is no
geographical or local cause why
Memphis should not be as
healthy as any city in the Union.
Our sanitary condition, while not
perfect, viii compare fayOrably with
any other place. Situated on a
high bluff overlooking the Missis-
sippi river on the thirty-ffth paral-
lei of latitude, midway between the
gulf and the lakes, remote from
any extensive swamps, surrounded
for hundreds Of miles in all direc-
tons by a healthy country which
supports a vigorous population,
Memphis is as healthy as San Fran
cisco, st. Louis, indianapolis, Pitts
burg, Philadelphia, New York,
Boston, or any other city Of the
same size in the country. The fact
that we had yellow fever in 1873
does not argue that it will return
in five, ten, twenty or fifty years.
The local cause in a filthy district
has been forever removed; our
people and physicians have learned
how to guard against the spread of
infectious diseases. Philadelphia,
New York and st. Louis, each in
time learned the same lesson by sad
experience. We have in our midst
hale and hearty men who have been
in active business for forty and fifty
years, and bid fair to live and work
for years to come. In the legal
profession, for instance, we have
Hon. Henry G. Smith. over seven
ty, who came South from New Eng
land over forty years ago for his
health, and his step is as elastic and
his mind as bright to-day as any
young man Of thirty. Judge Archi.
bald Wright, formerly Of the Su.
preme bench, came from Middle
Tennessee some half century ago.
and although somewhere between
seventy and eighty, is in his full
prime Of energy and usefulness
General Gideon ]. Pillow, who hal
always led an active life, iswell up il
years but has the prospect Of man,
more before him. Nicholas Hale,
farmer Of this county, aged eighty
eight, moved to Arkansas the othe
day to get more room and take
new start in life jeremiah Massey
who was with Jackson at New o.
leans, is over eighty and is one 9
our best farmers; Colonel @. D
Mclean set type and wrote for tn
press in Middle Tennessee fft