The New Orleans daily Democrat., 1878-08-23
THE DEATH Rate.

For ses eral days past members o1 the staff
Of the DEMOCRAT have been visiting the in
footed districts Of the city and presenting to
the pvblc sad but rigidly truthfll report of
heir.observations The extent Of the suffer
ing and destitlltion amongst certain classes
Of stjlr population is certainly dreadful to con-
template. and 1t is amongst these casses that
the groat mortality OF the prevailing fever
occurs. It looks like fruitlcss and
cruel sensation for an editor or re-
porter to describe ut u timo like this.
q pest hole with It's dying inmates Wallowing
in filth and black vomit, and out Of which
fifteen or twenty victims have already been
carted off in the charity carts to Potters'
Field: it makes timid men shudder to read
our stories Of fever-striCken victims huddled
together In wretched shanties and Unventi-
lated rooms with yards and alleys reeking
with filth, dying like sheep and only one in a
dozen recovering: 1t impresses tho commu-
nifty perhaps with an exaggerated idea of the
pestilenee to read our reports Of the scenes of
misery, wretehedness and dcstitution, all end
ing in dead dead. dead But wo have not given
these reports to the public without all object,
not for the purpose Of pandcring to the NOR
bid appetite of humanity for tho horrible.
Our objects have been higher than that and
we think they are wise and proper objects.
In The first place we desire that those
who have something TO spare for charity's
sake shall be acquainted with the
full measure Of destitution which pre-
walls in our city that they may come
forward and give to the uttermost Of their
ability for the relief Of their miserable fellow
citizens whom God in his inscrutable dispen-
satiun has loft to their care and protection.
We trust that every man or woman who has
little something to givo to mitigate the
needs of the living and the suffering Of the
sick and dying will read our reports and &C
cept them as not ono-t -tcnth part Of the real
truth
Our second object in publishing these sor-
rowfu stories Is. strange us it may seem, to
rob the yellow fever of the fictitious terrors
with which ignorance has clothed it. It would
he the ranlest folly, nay. it would be a cruel
crime for any sensible man to assert and at
tempt to dcludo the public by the assertion
that yellow fever is not o. terrible pestilence.
In any yellow fever epidemic, no matter what
may be the circumstances Of those who ore
afflicted, no matter what medical and other
attention they may receive there will always
be a largo mortality. But the public mind
should not be left to accept the whole terrible
death record as the inevitable and necessary
work of the fover. On the contrary. all the
facts should be ferreted out and published,
that the people may know how and under
what circumstances the majority Of the vic
Tins of the fever die. II. without any ex-
planaton, we accept, in any epidemic
OF yellow fever, the daily bulletins
of deaths rs the measure of the virulence OF
the disease, the fever will indeed appear to us
in the nature Of a. terrible plague whose raw
ages human intelligence, energy and care are
incapable of resisting. But when we go into
the infected localities and find the real cOndi-
tions which surround the people who are
stricken with the fever; the miserable and i'll
ventilated novels in which they live their
poverty and absolute deprivation Of the COM
mon necessaries of life; their ignorance and
the filth that surrounds them,
and in many instances their bad habits of long
we realize that human misery
degradation and vice give an energy and fe-
rocity to the fever which does not belong to
it, and which enable 1t to swell up the death
list to startling cxtont.
Our observation given to the public shows
that the majority of tho deaths SO far this
season from yellow fever have been due, not
SO much to the virulencc Of the fever as to the
fact that the conditions surrounding the pa
ticnts rendered all human aid unavailing
Many, indeed, have died without an appeal
for aid, and without ever having been seen
;,f,,
ago, twenty-six persons, every one who
had taken it, died. These people We're
Italians, and would not send for q doctor
Under the conditions which surrounded
them it would have been miracle If a single
one Of them had survived. Yet the twenty
six are all counted in the list Of deaths. The
Howards are doing ali in their power to allie
viate the suffering and destitution Of this
class of the people. But OF course, that
noble organization can do but little to change
the general conditions which surround whole
classes of the population; yet they are doing
much to alleviate individual suffering, and
they are, we believe, saving many lives.
Our reports have shown that the greatest
occurs where there is want ignor-
ance filth and negligence. In cases where
the patient is surrounded by the ordinary
comforts of life; where he has good nursing,
constant and tender care, the chances of re-
covery are largely in his favor In short, it is
poverty, want, filth and ignorance which
gives to yellow fever its awful terrors. Ger
tainly, it is fell disease anywhere, but prop
erly combatted, it is not the fearful plague it |
has been painted.
# IT
THE NORTH CAROLINA ELECTION,