Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1878-09-11
AMONG THE VICTIMS.
How the Poor Sufferers Endure Their
Pain in HOyels and Gar rets.


From the New Orleans Democrat, August p
X Meandering through the
various streets, visiting the children
here and adults there in all stages of the
fever, the reporter at last found himself
on st. Joseph street between Magazine
and Tchoupitoulas. The monday sun
was sending down its torrid rays, the
air was without perceptible motion and
the oppression in breathing seemed I'M
usually great! An old negro man W as
sitting in the window Of a howell trying
to get some enjoyment out Of his noon
day meal. The reporter accosted him
and asked him if there was anybody
sick in that yard, which was very
large one, and in which there was
a three-story tenement Blowing at a
hot potato he held in spoon, the negro
said: "Dar's nobody sick here; but you
jes go next door. 1t was one story
and low attic house with a narrow alley
offering admittance. Several negro
families occupied the ground floor, the
DANES of which were busy over char
coal furnaces preparing rather watery
soup for their spouses. The place was
most noisome. The offal of several days
had accumulated in the confined back
yard, and from it arose an odor that
was stiffling. Addressing an ebony wo-
man of twenty-five the reporter asked
whether any one was sick in there.
Stirring up the contents of black pot
on the fire, near the door of small
room, she, without raising her head,
said: "I believe tn ar's man in yon-
der"
"What's tie matter with him?" asked
the reporter. -oH-"
q dunno. I.don't know muffin bout
him, responded the cook.
The reporter passed along and enter
ed small room about eight by twelve
feet. There was rags IN this corner and
that. Nearest the door was a confused
pile of cooking utensils, and from a lit
tie two-foOt window hung dirty yellow
curtain a signal Of the dread disease
that has planted his lines within the
premises. At the end of the room, ly-
ing on pallet (if a quilt on the floor
can be called a pallet was stretched a
stalwart-looking man, down with the
fever. The heat was most intense. The
furnaces of the negro cooks added their
heat to that of the burning sun, and
the temperature of the room must have
been fully 50 degrees Fahrenheit The
floor was level with the ground and
resting upon it,. The dampness per-
meated the wood, and at the interstices
of the boards the mud oozed up. The
man had been sick some DAYS and "the
dochter had been there from the 'socia-
ton but the old man wanted something.
I've been giving him wee drap ofIbafe
tea, as the dochter said. and | fale sure
he'll bay all right soon" The wife had
evidently been at the horn, that is, not
a hunters horn, and it was rather slim
ulating. There were fully seven families
living III the house. On the outside of
the house there ran up a rickety stair
way, which trembled at each step of the
reporter. The habitation wasiof other
years. The antique white wash had
peeled oil It's weather boards, and the
shutters had a curious way of never
moving on their hinges. In the attic, a
room with sloping sides, on which the
sun beat with most Incorporate glare,
rested upon bed a man of apparently
forty years. The flush Of fever over
spread his face, and the wild rolling of
his eye told that the insidious disease
had taken its hold. A small bowl of
water stood at the side Of the. bed, and
IA well squeezed lemon foated about
IN it The wife was at the bedside
and asked for something to get
medicine with. The Towards soon af-
forded that. The room was like an
oven, and even we'll man could hard
ly stand the heat for forty-eight hours
there. The cold and nonchalant man
mer Of the negroes of the yard showed
that they were perfectly callous to- the
calls of humanity, and g cared little
whether either Of the sick men there
got well or not. The reporter then con-
tinued his walk till he came to thatgrow
loftenements DIT the corner Of st. Joseph
and Tchoupitoulas streets, which in
1858 Furnished so much aiment to the
consuming power of the plague.
ThroughEa mario "; alley which had been
covered over with lime the day before,
he penetrated, almost cropping, by means
of a staircase, which the rays of the sun
never reach, to the first story, where he
was met by an elderly woman, holding
in her arms a sickly child, whose saffron
tint indicated that he was one Of the
sufferers from the epidemic. Tn an
swer to the question, "Anybody sick
here?" she ushered the reporter into "a
room where a young woman lay pros
trate with the fever on one bed, while
on another bed Was child on the eve
| of convalescenee. < In the room adioin-
ing was another woman afflicted also
with the scourge. r." These said the
elderly Won an, '.are my two daughters
the baby here" showing the child she
carried in her arms, lis my eldest
daughters; this pointing to7the other,
f'belongs to nay other daughter. b My
husband lis sick ,r with the feverdnext
door. After inquiring into the neces,
sites. of.the inmates the reporter visited
No! 81 There hesfound the. father, Of
the sick family up stairs, Lying restless
Oh a bed with anurses of the Towards
smear him. 4 No. So there were a few
patients among whom a young woman
in the inciolency Of the disease. Upon
coming ont into the street, though the
air was SllltrY the renOrter breathed