The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1878-10-10
Plaques I'm the Past.

The yellow fever epidemic in portions
of the South may make the following
sketch of the oriental plague and its
ravages of interest. Its most frightful
attack was centuries ago, when, under
the name of Black Death, it wiped away,
according to some estimates, one-third
of the population of the Old World !;
but in modern history it has appeared
not less than three times, and num-
bered it victims by tens of thousands.
The first occasion was in 1876, at
Milan, Italy. Cardinal Charles Bor-
romeo was then archbishop; he was so
universally loved that his flock, his
clergy even, besought him to save his
life by flight; but the shepherd was
faithful to his sheep, and would not de-
sert them in their bitter extremity. He
refused to leave, and throughout the
many weary months during which the
plague lasted, was constant at his post.
He seemed to bear charmed life, and
when all but he and few faithful ones like
himself appeared to have abandoned all
hope, he assembled his congregation
under the mighty dome of the magnif-
cent cathedral, and there, after solemn
High Mass, knelt down and prayed God
to take his life as an expiatory offering,
and deliver his people from the curse.
Its next appearance was in Amster-
dam, Holland, in 1868, whence, in the
following year, it crossed the channel
and visited London. From the follow
ing February until after the first frost
of winter, its ravages were horrible. In
one mouth not less than 1000 people
died, and the city so soon afterwards to
be consumed by fire, was half depopu-
lated. The symptoms were the same as
they had been in Milan. A raging fever
of typhoid character was accompanied
by malignant tumors on the inner side
of the arms and thighs. The pain was
excruciating, the thirst tormenting, and
patients died by hundreds in the very
delirium of madness. No Borromeo
was there to direct the energies of the
priests and nurses. There we're deeds OF
heroism done, but it was not heroic
age. The profigate of Charles III was
on the throne, and the Earl of Rochester
and his set were scarcely the men to fol-
low in the footsteps of the grand arch
bishop.
When the pestilence was at its height,
the condition of London was frightful.
Whole streets bore upon the doors a
cross, roughly painted in red, with the
inscription. "The Lord have mercy
upon U.S." as sign that one or more Of
the inmates were dead or dying. The
grass grew in the thoroughfares that
used to be crowded, and where brilliant
carriages had travelled to and fro at
every hour of the day, only the tracks
of the dead cart were seen. There were
none to bury the dead with appropriate
or even decent ceremonies. Huge pits
were dug in the outskirts, and the bod
les of men, women and children, un-
coffined, almost naked, were hurled in
by the hundred. Corpses were left to
tester and rot even in the lanes and al
leys, and for some days it appeared as
though enough would, not be left alive
to bury the dead. 1t was carnival of
crime. Thieves and housebreakers
roamed the city at will, and hired
nurses, impatient of the slow approach
of death, murdered their charges by the
hundred, and enriched themselves with
the spoil. Quack doctors, fortune tellers,
sellers of amulets and charms, and even
venders of poison, reaped huge profits.
The last and third appearance of the
plague was at Marseilles, France. in
172l. The Parliament of Provence at.
tempted to establish military Gordon
around the city, but fugitives escaped
and carried the disease elsewhere, and il
was not until nearly 10000 had perished
that the plague abated.
Wherever it has appeared, an out
break of crime has always accompanied
the plague, but everywhere, also, there
have been noble men and noble women
whose patient heroism stands out
brightly burning, to illuminate the page
of history.