Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1878-08-27
Ravagss Of the Plaeue.
A GLOOMY OUTLOOK AT NEW ORLEANS

Especial dispatch to the New York Times.l
New ORLEANS, August 21.-It may
be safely assumed that $4,000 residents
OF this city are now absent. They have
taken with them the wealth of the city,
SO that II the fever becomes intensified
any further, as anticipated. the suffer
ing will be very great. Little more
than suspicion of business is seen on
the streets, and the only really thriving
persons are the doctors, druggists, I'M
dertaKers; carriage drivers, and the
Western Union Telegraph Company
Most correspondence is done through
the latter medium, owing to the rigid
quarantine abroad against mail matter,
The prospect is gloomy, as we are now
within few weeks OF the business sea-
son, and there is little hope that the fe-
yer will have subsidized by that time
Besides, several towns, interested in d.
verting trade from New Orleans, will
rigidly enforce quarantine till frost
comes. No wonder long countenances
are met everywhere on the street, and
gloomy fOrebodings uttered by every
tongue.
This is the sixth week since the COM
mencement of the fever in New Orleans.
According to tradition; therefore, it is
the decisive week-the one which shall
determine whether it is possible for
medical skill to check it or whether 1t
shall eat out its material. Physicians
who went through the epidemics of 1858,
1858, 1857, are of opinion that it is i'm
possible to kill it, and the reports of
this week, SO far. indicate that the fever
will assert its own way to the last. For
tunateiy, the great majority of the raw
material has left, and the panic outside
will prevent the accession of new fuel.
1t is confined to the present inhabitants.
The great fear is associated with the pc
ried intervening between August 25th
and the middle of September, when
there is generally q great weather
change, which brings the fever to its
crisis. There are No apprehensins of q
high mortality, and all the military and
benevolent associations have resolved
themselves into committees for the care
of the sick. In the meantime every
thing is at a standstill. Steamboats, and
scho0ners are tied up, and the quaran-
tine embargo threatens to prevent early
shipments of cotton, &c.
Strangely enough, persons born here
seem to be as susceptible to the disease
as others, and the old theory that man
can't have yellow fever a second time
has received rude shock. Children
are being taken down in large numbers.
Some French physicians, who are OPP
posed to carbolic acid as q disinfec-
tant, say the latter, which is freely used
throughout the city, is the cause of the
juvenile mortality.
Out of 1856 deaths which have occurred
during the last week there were only
four negroes. This is ACCOUNTED for on
the theory that the fever attacks the
nervous system, and the negro consti-
tuition being less refined than the white,
is less subject to attack,
It is worthy of note that since the
inception Of the fever the flies have dis
appeared, This encourages believers in
the doctrine that the fever travels by ct
mospheric waves. Though not declared
epidemic, the fever has passed through
the epidemic standard.
The Chief Of Police has received in
structions to remove the bells from ice
cream wagons and to instruct drivers OF
vehicles to drive slowly when passing
localities where there are any persons
suffering from fever.