The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1878-09-07

at Vlcksbufg, Miss, advlces on the twenty
seventh say the fever there was spreading with
fearful rapidity. The following dispatch was
received by Supervising Surgeon General Wood
WORTH at Washington, from G. e. Bent, deputy
collector Of customs at Vicksburg: Twenty
three deaths yesterday, six hundred cases
under treatment, and the plague spreading with
fearful rapidity. Great suffering and destitu
ton alleng the poorer classes. See the United
States authorities, and urge the imperative
necessity for Government aid. Rations requir-
ed immediately. Weather unfavorable." An
other dispatch from W. G. Paxton, grand
commander of Knights Templar, says: ssDisease
and desiitution walk hand in hand in this city.
Eight hundred cases are under treatment. The
weather is very unfayorable We need every
thing. Trains and steamboats, all stopped.
In New Orleans the yellow fever report on
the twenty-seyenth showed one hundred and
ninety-four new cases and forty mine deaths.
Some hope was aroused by the successful
treatment .ef patient in the last throes Of
death by new method. The remedy con-
sisted in sprinkling the dying man with ice
water for two hours, when the fever disap-
peared and the patient fell into gentle sleep.
At Grenada, Miss, the situation of affairs
on the twenty seventh was somewhat better
than therefore, number of persons who had
been Frustrated having recovered; and as they
were the first who had not succumbed to the
dread disease, it was thought that a change
for the better was coming. Physicians and
nurses from other cities continued to arrive,
and all were working hard to check the terri
BILE plague.
a dispatch from Canton, Miss, says (: "Send
us two nurses Immediately; fever increasing"
The New Orleans TInaes's correspondent at Can
ton, Miss, under date of the 9th, says: II ar
rived here Sunday last Pretty tough times.
Not single business house open except two
drug stores. Once a population of 800, but
now only seventy-fye whites are to be found
here. Mayor and family sick; and board Of
alderman fed. Court house locked up, and
officers gone to some safe place. Nothing but
hearses and collins to be seen on the streets.
Some thirty-fve or forty cases Of yellow fever
here Many colored people have died within
the past few days. The few whites now here
are scared, because not single case Of yellow
fever has been doctored successfully. No per-
son attacked has recovered"
dispatch from Port Gibson, Miss, to the
Howard Association, of New Orleans says
sFeyer very fatal, and no abatement. Two
hundred and thirty cases and thirty-five deaths
to date. Ice is wanted more than anything
else. Nurses doing we'll. Our expenses are
$3.50 per day. New York, st. Louis, Jackson
and Columbus are aiding. But one or two con-
valescent persons 80 far"
A st. Louis dispatch of the twenty eighth
says: "St Louis is swarming with refugees
from the fever-infected districts of the South,
and every Southern train that arrives brings
fresh additions. No fears are felt that the
scourge will take hold here. st. Louis welcomes
all who come Among the arrivals to-day from
New Orleans wasSW. 81. Kells, prominent
and intelligent citizen of that city. In an
interview this afternoon he stated that when
he left New Orleans the streets were almost
deserted. People confined themselves to their
houses, seldom leaving them except when
absolutely necessary. Whole families were
cu,o Nv ho Qaid no. Tho
worst ravages of the fever are confined to those
portions Of the city where the lower classes
live. The higher classes have not suffered so
much. The city undoubtedly brought the
fever upon herself through not taking sufficient
sanitary precautions. The impression preva-
lent apparently all over the North, and even IN
New Orleans, that the disease did not originate
in that city, is erroneous. It is commonly
supposed that the germ of the fever was
brought to the city by q ship from Havana.
When the scourge began in New Orleans, the
lower portions Of the city we're reeking with
filth.
In Memphis the plague was still on the
increase, and it was feared the horrors of
starvation would be added to the terrors of the
situation. The physicians and nurses were
oyerworked and all were fleeing from the city
who could get away. Forty thousand rations
were sent by the Secretary of War to Vicks-
burgh, and relief from all parts Of the country
came pouring into the afflicted cities.
New Orleans dispatches Of the twenty ninth
say ssThe board Of health discussed the
progress of the epidemic, and the members
were unanimous in the belief that it was utter
ly beyond human control, and would have to
run its course. Unless some great and rare
meteorological change takes place. the proba-
bility is strong that the city will be swept
throughout. Many of the best physicians in
the city are now refusing to visit new cases,
having their powers already taxed to the ut
most. This situation of affairs is far from
hopeful. The number of new cases of yell
low fever reported to-day is 140 deaths, 49,.
In Memphis Q frightful condition of affairs
existed. The following dispatch tells the
melancholy story: The scourge is increasing
in. virulence every moment To-day the
deaths numbered seventy-two; new cases, 40.
There is hardly house in the city not entirely
vacant which does not contain one or more
persons down with the disease, or lying dead,
awaiting burial. The increase of the malady
among the colored population to-day is fright
full, while it does not seem tos relinqHish its
hold upon the white people. Every hour in
the day new victims are reported, and physi-
clans 60 from house to house on the run.
The county jail, which in 1873 was in the
heart of tho infected district, yet was free
from the fever, now contains seven cases.
The prisoners, numbering nearly 400, are now
being removed to the Forrest Prison Farm, on
PRESIDENTS lslanQ, where they Will De kept
under strong guard. The atmosphere is
thick with the pestilential poison, and as the
number OF victims increases there is q CORE
spending increase in the alarm among the well
ones who have thus far escaped, and large
numbers are moving into the country, some
preferring even to take up their abode in
freight cars on the lines of the railways, rather
than risk their lives here. There are plenty
OF thieves at work. Not q day or night passes
that numbers of burglaries do not occur"
From other points the reports on the twenty
ninth showed continual increase in the
number Of Victims 10 thA nlaoIla and Rrraad