The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1878-11-15

formed at night; there was to be N.
tolling of bells-no outward ceremonial
But ut night the fatal cart began it,
rounds, and at every infected house tn,
cry was heard: "Bring out your dead f!
They were thrown together in huge
piles; i'm the church-yards deep pit
were dug, and here, 10y the CLEAN o
torches, the bodies were thrown in ano
lightly covered with earth. Every
house that was infected was isolated;
Waterman stood Mt the entrance; no one
was suffered to go in or out except the
physician; upon the door was placed
large red cross inscribed: Lord have
mercy on us They might well cry fol
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 misera,
BILE poor died by thousands, and saved
the city from the cost of feeding them
which it had never failed to do. The
recreant 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
constables and watchmen were seldom
at rest many of them died. Day and
night mt last, an observer relates, the
labor of burial went on. Sancroft,
Dean of st. Pauls, had fled to Tun-
bridge; 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 fled 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 robbed their
patients: of deeds of horror that were
never punished; of the infected who
ran shrieking through the streets, and
fell dead; of homes where all had died
together. August, September, passed
on with ever-growing horrors; III No
yember the colder weather seemed to
check the disease, and many who came
back too hastily were infected and died.
At last, in December, the great deliver
ance came; the pestilence had ceased.
n WIN, lcuiiui JOY ollN"' wv 'iN
afflicted city; its people came back once
more to the desolate scene, maddened
with "A strange exhilaration. Those who
survived were crazed with the JOY of
living. Once more the great city was
thronged with the rich, busy, gay; the
court and King came back; rigid law
was passed to punish dissenters; the
revels and crimes of Whitehall began
again; but nothing was done by court
or King to prevent the return of that
awful scourge that had so recently
passed away. A mightier power inter
vened. A new calamity seemed to pre-
vent the recurrence of the old. The
great fire in London soon followed,
swept over the tainted ground, con-
sumed churches and church-yards-St.
Paul's and st. Mary's- shops, ware
houses, palaces, novels, cleansed many
a narrow close, purified many scene of
horror. The city was rebuilt with wider
streets, better buildings. Perhaps its
citizens had learned neatness and pro-
priety; but it is certain that the plague
never came again, and that by the labors
of modern science the vast capital has
been made one of the healthiest and
most fortunate of cities.