Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1878-09-12
CHE Aurkrille Gmqllirer.
YORkV1LLE. 5. G.:
THURSDAY MORNING, SEPT. -, 1878.
THE YELLOW FEVER PLAGUE.

THURSDAY MORNING, SEPT. -, 1878.
THE YELLOW FEVER PLAGUE.
The work of death in the fever-stricken cities
continues unabated since our report of last
week. In Memphis, last Saturday, 54 deaths
we're reported up to noon, and lO3 for the
twenty-four hours ending at noon that day
A Memphis dispatch of Saturday says:
Our city indeed is reduced to desperate strait.
1t seems utterly impossible to secure men enough
to bury the dead promptly, and to burn injected
clothing and disinfect premises. The mayor has
been down for several days, and there is but one
officer of the city government on his feet, and the
board of health, on account of the sickness OF Its
members, is unable to get a quorum together.
Prominent members of the Howard Association
to-day called on Major VIM. Willis to take the
head of affairs in the city, which ne refused TO do
but pledged the support of himself and the clti.
zens relief committee to the acting mayor IN all
measures for public good. Hon. Fl. Casey Young
has taken in hand the work of thoroughly fuml-
eating the city by means of burning turpentine
and birthstone. Chief McFadden, OF the tre de-
partment will place his force on duty, keeping up
bonfires. AS soon the artillery sent TOR arrives
the conclusion test will be applied. There is
pressing need here for experienced nurses. Ten
dollars per day has been vainly offered, and many
sick lie in their rooms without proper attention,
owing to the inability of the Relief Association
to supply the many calls for nurses. Although
there are many negroes in the city, few can be
persuaded to wait upon or even approach sick
person, while the majority OF those VINO 40 nlre
as nurses for the big pay offered are inefficient.
In New Orleans, for the twenty-four hours
ending at noon on Saturday, 232 new cases
and II deaths we're reported. The deaths in
cluded 80 minors of whom 16 were under sew
en- years of age. Sundays report shows 225
new cases and 81 deaths.
Forty cases of fever are reported at Lake
Station, on the Vicksburg and Meridian Rail
road, forty miles west of Meridian, and ten
cases at Bolton, on the same road, twenty,
seven miles east of Vicksburg.
A dispatch from Canton, Miss, says there
were twelve new cases and three deaths in
that place on Saturday. The refugees are
taking the fever in the surrounding country,
eleven cases being reported in one house east
of there.
Describing the horrors around Vicksburg,
the New Orleans Times says:
The condition of affairs at Vicksburg is truly
appalling. There seems to be no immediate pros
pect of the abatement Of malady which has de-
veloped the most stubborn and malignant traits,
and which continues to spread with absolutely
friphtful energy. Some idea of the truth may De
formed when we consider that an equal mortall-
ty here would result in at least two hundred
and fifty deaths per day and about two thousand
the epidemic Of 1853. Vicksburg is city OF
scarcely more than fifteen thousand inhabitants,
and vet the reports from there on Tuesday record
ed twenty-four deaths and one hundred and
eighteen new cases of yellow fever. New orleans,
with population of two hundred and twenty
had only forty-nine deaths and some
thing over two hundred new cases. 1t IS sale TO
that larger percentage & OF peeRle 9axe Ee1 81
that any change in these estimates on that &C
count would only tend to swell the relative des-
truction in Vicksburg. If, in addition, we take
into account the great unacclimated populatlon
here, the numbers of destitute people herded TO-
eether in ill-buit, ill-ventilated tenements, the
natural prey of disease in one shape or another,
and then remember that four -titths OF the deaths
in New Orleans have been among these people
and among little children, we begin to realize
how infinitely greater, as public calamity, has
been the fever in Vicksburg.
The case is really one to appeal to the sympa-
thies of the whole country. OF course New Or.
leans is doing her utmost. 1t is from here that
skilled physicians and experienced nurses 60
forth
fever. All we desire is to call attention to the
great aff1iction under which Vicksburg, in COM
mon with Memphis and Grenada is laborlng,.
and to adure our fellow citizens in every part OF
the country to bear in mind her terrible, heart
rending extremity.
That even worse condition exists at
Memphis, may be inferred from the follow
ing extracts from letter written by a nurse
who went there from Charleston several days
ago:
81 am completely broken down. have not
sept six hours since have been here, ut is da-
ted the 3rd.) A million minute, and the
interest on it, would .ot tempt me to take anoth-
er trip of the kind. Only for humanltys SAKE
came, and 1 don't regret it but did not expect
to find purified bodies all around me, and peo'
ple diving from neglect. pledge you my honor
have not seen case cured yet. III IS We
Plague. I have helped to bury three, and must
expect to bury another tomorrow. Great God,
it makes me vince, but won't desert the poor
unfortunate people. Every now and then feel
as if had the disease. 1 amt scared, but, II
was in Charleston, the salubrious cline OF Mem
phis would not be my choice. # Every store
of Importance is closed, and property is left at
the mercy of any one who chooses to steal 1t. "
The people are panic stricken, and the cof-
fins all sold. Tell all the game men IN Charles
ton to come to Memphis. We have every
and when we go out to nurse we give orders for
ANYTHING needed to be sent to the PATIENTS house.
: Il l saw three die in one house without dose
of incidence
Contributions are still being made through.
out all sections of the country, the rich and
the poor contributing of their means, and
towns and villages contributing in proportion
TO their means with the same liberaity as the
larger cities. The contributions in the prin-
cipal cities thus far sum up as follows:
New York, $l3l, ,O2664; Philadelphia, S47,7OS.-
90; Chicago, $685., 10000; st: Louis, $50, ,oOOoG
Boston, 26O07. 90 Cincinnati, $2O,00O.0O; Pitts
burg Sls,OOO.OO; Baltimore, Sl4,S54.0O; Washing
ton, 3ll ,OOOOO San Francisco, $S,00000; Charles
ton, S7,47l.l5; Savannah, S7,0OO.OO; Springfield,
Mass, $6,3S5.OO; Brooklyn, S7025.O3; Lincoln,
Neb, S., 100000; Indianapolis, S4,5OOOO; Column
90; Elizabeth, n j., s4,OOO.OO; Mobile, $4,000
90; Montgomery, S3,5OO.OO; Augusta, S3,5oOOO;
Ind, So, 10000; Hartford, Conn.,, g.
4l62O; Little Rock, Ark, S2,00O.O0; Shreveport,
La, s2,Go0.00; Newark, n j., 81 1898 90 Jack G
Terra Haute, Ind, Sl,05O00; Dubuque 81, ,O23.-
90: Raleigh, N c., Sl,0O0.00; Lancaster, Pa,
81 10000; Orange, N. j., Sl,oooOO Rochester, N.
Y, 100000.
Mondays dispatches report 100 deaths and
300 new cases in Memphis on Sunday, and
on Monday, up to II o'clock P. NJ, there were
112 iuterments, of which "a we're colored.
At New Orleans, for the twenty.four hours,
ending at noon on Monday, there were 144
new cases and 81 deaths. A number of new
cases are reported from Grenada. At Can
ton, Miss, there were "a new cases and 4
deaths. At Holly Springs, there we're 7 deaths
and new cases. The second imported case
at Chattanooga, Tenn, from which the patient
died, is reported.
A corresnondent writing from New Or.