Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1878-11-15

! q limit, without rCAlStanCe, almost 10 the ue-
struction Of the population Of vast capital
! has wholly vanished before some inscrutable
law some change Of habits, improvement in
morals and manners. Often before 1865 it
had prevailed in London and England almost
with Oriental severity and had slowly made
lis way over Western Europe, deyouring "A
! generation in its passage. 1t began usually
! in Egypt and Syria, reached Coustantinoplc,
overrnn the Continent. desoated Amsterdam
and Paris, covered England with dismay. IL
! is curious to notice how all these violent and
loathspmo diseases are born and nourished in
the East, ride slowly westward, decimate, de
stroy,-the poisonous gifts Of n decaying
| civilization. The Black Death in 1913 is the
most fearful of ALL 1t camo from the East
over medieval Europe, staying whole cities
! full of people laying waste and silent the
open country, knocking Mt the cottage aud the
| palace ghtg The human race, in the words Of
! the chr0uiclprs, seemed about TO disappear :
cities as largo as New Orleans were nearly de
sorted districts Of fertile country fairer than
Mississippi were tcuarted once moro 10y wild
beasts. Half tho people Of Europe, it was cs-
! timuted, died. II was as If two hundred
thousand Of the inhabitants Of Boston had
persisted in few months. half a million in
New York. We have nothing in modern
times to approach the violence of these an
ceut plaques men have multiplied, disease
diminshcs Il is not difficult TO fancy the
horror that settled upon the survivors, the
tcrrors of the lonely cities, The forsakcn streets
the depOpulatcd desolatc country the sud
den outbreaks of fierce religious madness that
often followed the hagellants. white peni-
tents fanatics, coutrtion, despair; or the
wild revelry that sometimes sprung up in its
midst the shouts OF riotous merriment ming
ling with groans and tears
1t was plague of this kind that came upon
London in 1865, so fearful that it could only
seem judgment from above So it appear
ed to the rigid Puritnus and republicans who
five years before had welcomed back Charles
H. and his Cavaliers with dissembled glad
ness, with compromise with evil they could
never atone for. London had been Puritan
city strict ia outward morals. rigid in doc.
triue. industrious. gloomy the return of the
Cavaliers had filed il with foreign vices, friv-
olous lighmcss, gross impurity. The king
had brought with him gay. mad. miserable
train every thing rational was neglected he
was the Comus OF y '.rabble rout, - and many
with Milton or Defoc looked upon the plague
as the Judgment Of Heaven upon the msdecds
of their rulers London in the winter and
spring Of lGGi-Gj was crowded with people
in the West End the wealthy and noble gath
cred around Westminster and Whitehall, in
the City aud the eastern Suburbs trade had re-
vivcd. The river was full of ships, the streets
filled with an oyerfiowiug tide Of life Dcfoc
has painted with his realistic pen the slow rise
of the pestouce, the first alarm the hopes,
the fears, the progres, Of the ,courge secret
ly and then op MY. TIE fight of the citizens.
tho horr;d gloom. the dcath-criss. the yawIi-
ing graves crime. woe, the decline Of the
pestilence. the bouudlesl JOY of the survivors,
the return of the nnprnitent court. For IL
long time it had h-al known In London that
al, bal l,t.,t
brought from the East by some uulucly trad
er but IN the winter of 1864 only few cases
had been noticed ia the capital yet these
were enough to excite deep anxiety. Men
watched the reports OF the dtnths in the diff
ferout parishes eagerly. We had no such
thing as printed newspapers in tLose days"
says Defoe, ITO spread rumors and reports of
things, and improve them But the Tumor
of the approach of the disease had already
reached London. In November two men,
said to be Frenchmen, died in DrUry Lane
the physicians declared they had died of
plague; and the weekly bill of mortality was
printed: "PNgUe , Parasites iRttct6d, l."
Another died III December. For six weeks
no ether death occurred; then in February
one happened. II was noticed however,
that the number of deaths around St. Giles's
had greatly increased it was whispered that
the plague was there, and few cared to ven
ture through Drury Lane. But the winter
came on sharp and seemed to kill the disease,
as if il could only flourish in the hot air of
summer II disappeared wholly. 1t revived
in Maya cool pleasant month it fingered
in the filth and squalor of St. Giless. and in
June broke into fearful activity. The pesti-
lcuce had come the citizens who were able
closed their houses, shops, aud fled. The
court had gone to Oxford for weeks the
streets We're filed with throngs of people
moving TO the country on horseback, on foot,
carrying their furniture, goods, wares tue
rich and poor mingled in II common calamity.
But many were forced to stay, and on these
the pestilruce fell with almost unaccountable
fury Tie hot weather Of July reused it to
viulonce in August it was fearful; III Sep
tember the horrors told Of it surpass belief.
II first appeared with tumor on the breast or
under the arm, hard, painful, hoTible-the
plague-spOt The physicians when they saw
the fearful omen would cry, Lift up your
eyes to God :" In a few hours it was fatal.
Sometimes the patients sank under raging
fever, headache sometimes faded away in
swift decline almost painless; some seemed
to die Of fright some hanged themselves TO
escape it some were seized in the streets,
and died before they could reach their own
doors. In September 5000 persons died
weekly, and CO. COO, it was believed were in
fected. The Lord Mayor of the city, his
sheriGs and aldermen, remained bravely at
their post they did all that man could do.
They ordered, when too late, the streets to be
purified; funerals-or rather burials-were
only to be performed at night; there was to
be no tolling of bells, no outward ceremonial.
But Mt night the fatal cart began its rounds,
and at every infectedhouse the cry was heard
Bring out your dead!" They were thrown
together in huge piles; in the church-yards
deep pits were dug, and here by the CLEAN Of
torches the bodies were thrown in and lightly
covered with earth Every house that was in
fected was isolated Waterman stood at the
entrance: no one was suffered TO go in or out
except the physician; upon the door was
placed a large red cross inscribed Lord
have mercy on us They might well cry for
mercy The air seemed tainted; grass grew
in once crowded streets; the trade of the
great capital was lost the ships hung idly in
the Thames the miserable poor died by
thousands and saved tie city from feeding
them, which it never had failed to do. The
recrcaut king and court might fly from the
scene of duty, but the city officials showed no
trace of fear The Mayor was constantly in
the streets: even the constabes and watch
men were seldom at rest many of them died.
Day and night at last, an observer relates, the
labor Of burial went ON. Sancroft, dean of
St. Paul's, had fed to Tunbridge his canons
remained, and some of their letters TO the dean
still exist-the cry of utter despair.
Whole streets of houses were shut up and
abandoned; men fed from each other when
they met the money paid to the butcher or
baker was fumigated thieves wandered
through the deserted shops and dwellings,
and sometimes died there. Fearful tales
were told of nurses who smothered and rob
bed their patients of deeds of horror that
were never punished; of the infected who
ran shricking through the streets, and fell
dead of homes where all had died together.
August September, passed ON with ever
growing horrors; in November the colder
weather seemed TO check the disease, and
many who came back too hastily were infect
ed and died. At last, in December, the great
deliverance came; the pestilence had ceased.
wild, fearful JOY spread over the afflicted
city its people came back once more to the