San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1878-12-21
The Plague Stricken Lu,,,,
4 Dismal Jowrnsy Dorm tia Jack,on D.,
90 Sesc Orieans. ""ss
New York worlt.l

Mr.. G. I. Howard, manager of n.
Louisiana lottery, has just arrived in mi.
city from New Orleans, having travelled
through tho fever districts of the South
To a World reporter, who visited him
at tho Gilsey house yesterday, he said.
II went down there about a month
ago. I Travelled along the Jackson road
and got into the fever district at Mylaud
Tennessee, and travelled for miles riuht
through the fever belt, going through
Holly Springs, Grenada, Water VALLEY
and all the other places infected with The
fever. The sleeper was behind freieb.
train. You had to take provisions with
you. All the hotels and restaurants were
closed; many of the villages we-o com.
pletely deserted. On some trains Won
were locked up in the cars and they
wouldn't letyou out. Many of the towns
were quarantined against you. At 9th,
ers pickets were stationed to see that
you didn't leave tho train. Tho road
for some two hundred miles was ditched
on each side and strewn with lime, and
every ten miles or so squadrons of h.
rels full of lime were placed at the sta
tons where everybody could take what
he needed. This lime had been sent
down as n gift from Chicago. Many Of
the towns had fires of turpentine and
tar blazing around to purify the air.
Crops of cotton and corn stood ungath-
cred in the fields for miles and miles in
every section. In many places the in.
habitants had taken with them all their
live stock. Cows, horses, everything had
gone. Then every few miles you would
meet the relief trains with rations, nurs.
es and supplies. There must have been,
I suppose, some two thousand persons
acting as nurses and committees along
the line of the road, all wearing badges
of yellow muslin in their button holes.
In some places where the inhabitants.
had died they had only negroes to bury
them. The railroads had lost great
many employees and the locomotives
were draped in mourning At Bolivar
we passed tent where they had laid out
two of the men-a brakesman and an
engineer-who had died the night be-
fore. At Paris the hotel was closed and
both the proprietor and his wife had
died. Everywhere there was gloom. The
prospect for the future in these districts
is very cherries. @
"But at New Orleans things did not
look quite so bad, owing to the number
of people who had become acclimatized
and were not liable to the fever. But
great deal of restitution prevailed. The
laboring classes were unable to get work.
The city being quarantined by every
other place around, the merchants were
unable to ship their goods, and there
fore there was an utter stagnation Of
business. People, however, were hope
fYl, as the sugar crop was very large and
rolling had already begun on anyplan-
tations. The cotton crop was also very
fair, and New Orleans looks forward to
a prosperous winter"
Then referring to his recollections Of
scenes of former years Mr.. Howard
said:
"This epidemic was the most severe
we have had since 1858. The four most
terrible scourges were the present and
those of 1853, 1854 and 1858. In 1858
I had the fever myself for three weeks.
The fever in 1867 ran pretty high, but
nothing to equal the present year. One
thing remarkable about the spread Of
the fever this time was that it didn't 6"
further than few miles back of the rail-
road, which showed that it was taken
from place to place by the railroads"
did the trains run regularly" asked
the reporter.
~Once day. But the passengers were
extremely few. On the train that took
to New Orleans there were only three
passengers, myself, my wife and another
traveller. And on my way north there
were only four in all.
Speaking of life in New Orleans dur
ing the fever, Mr.. Howard said:
There were no beggsrs in the streets