The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1878-10-24
THE sORROWFUL STORY.
A Vicksburg Minister'S Account of the
Rayages of the Yellow Fever Plague.

THE SORROWFUL STORY.
A Vicksburg Minister'S Account of the
RavaSes of the Yellow Fever Plague.
From the Chicago Times.l
VICKsBURG, Miss, Oct. 6-DEAR
FRIEND: l have tried hard to get leis-
ure TO write to you for two weeks, but
calls for help from the first hotr of the
morning to the midnight bell forbade.
All business has been at total stand
still. The colored people have no work,
and if they want to 60 to the plantations
to pick cotton, they are forbidden to
come, as they are regarded as facile
porters of the poison that kills. Not
withstanding, as you see by kilograms,
fever is being carried all over the coun-
try, and we are looking for the most
fearful times outside the city. 1t is
scattering itself over Kinds County, and
bids fair, unless very cold weather comes
soon, to reap a greater harvest in the
country than it has in the city. We
have buried over 800, and if we stop at
1000 we may be thankful. The very
pillars of society have gone down to the
tomb. You see names here and at Holly
Springs whose loss will fill all hearts
with sadness and pain. Our people
have behaved well. Some were filled
with alarm and fled hurriedly away.
The ravages of the fever at Grenada
caused the worst form of alarm. Our
evening paper lately said that the rich
had fed and left the poor to fight
alone, but the very opposite is
true. Our bankers and capitalists and
wealthiest citizens are here and doing
brave and noble service. Indeed, it is
a great offering of almost inspired phil
anthropy to God and to suffering hui
manity. The church has no advantage
in devotion to the sick. Gods prayer
and follies of healthy days are sleepless
and tender, ready, and never ceasing in
their aid, and [ may say are eager to
keep the night-watch in the peStilential
homes of those who are dying. have
seen them holding the head so gently
while the black-vomit poured from the
mouth, and doing little acts of soothing
and comfort which poetry assigns only
to the soft hands of woman, and my
heart has taken them into its undying
love. Many such, having never had
the fever, made it doubly noble. You
know that in the forty years of our
friendship have cherished no love of
sham or gush or oyer-lauding of priests,
nuns, sisters, or clergy of any denomi-
nation for attention to sick people or
suffering soldiers. | think the sisters of
charity most noble class, but | see
wives, mothers, and beautiful young
women of the best walks of society with
more to lose than they ever dreamed,
facing this fearful scourge and going
dcwn to death with a fidelity to God
and humanity, that never was or will
be excelled, and yet no pretentieus
claim is ever set up to remarkable piety
or unequaled heroism. As for the
priests and the rest of us Protestant
clergymen, we deserve the least praise
of the brave men that toll in an epidem-
ic to assuage the sufferings of our fellow
beings, and yet what a martyrdom is
claimed when young, Wireless, child
less, homeless clergyman dies in an ep-
idemic! Nonsense! Every man of
every creed and church is supposed to
be ready in any hour to 90 at the call of
the Great Master. He has heaven for q
home and eternal things of infinite val
ne for his reward. Why should such
fear? Why not desire to die like the
great Paul? Nothing is lost, but when
you see hundreds of good, clever, brave,
patriotic men of every age and station,
with every thing to make life desirable
and not the least preparation for the
eternal years beyond, step to the front
and engage in struggle for the rescue
of some poor victim of the fearful
and knowing, too, that
before morning they may be
in the vortex of death, then you
see manhood in its greatest attitude and
the pretentions of the church to all
honor due for sacrifice and toll and
martyrdom Knocked and laughed at. l
have been in many epidemics and been
ashamed as | have observed that in the
South church-leaders get eulogium and
others laurels, while many OF the real
heroes and heroines were passed by
quite forgotten. Ought not there to be
a roll of honor by which these splendid
privates of the rank and file in our days
of pestilence and death should be made
to feel that their names are not allowed
to perish? Many plain, unpretending
person who has deserved the highest
honor and the largest gratitude has sank
under a sense of the indifference, cold
ness, and neglect of society. They seek
no reward, but is it therefore just that
their names should perish and undue
praise be sounded over smaller deeds
Of semi-conspicuous persons-however
sweet the consciousness of having done
their full duty is-perhaps their best
reward? | have been some days writ
ing this letter. Meantime many changes
have taken place but the worst is over
here, and now the country all out from
one to twenty miles is suffering. The
country will need help of every sort and
the Towards here are toiling to the full
capacity of numbers, strength, and
funds. Ne owe you great debt of
grateful remembrance for your efforts
to raise means for our relief. AS
close, a hooking bird has come to my
window and poured forth a cheerful
song, but for 40 days not bird has sung
a note over the homes of our plague
stricken city. Very truly yours,
G. X. MARSHALL.
Discipline in Education.