Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1878-09-05
A DEs,ERvED' CITY.


have thought to supplement the wires by
the mailbag tu-night, promising that the MSS.
shall 80 ttrn"3h seyen processes Of disinfec-
!'>n before IL: d:o!.: ':s into the box. O.. it
il no t*:ub:c. .;:s;,:r: you. There are gallons
~ car,a.ic acid !yir; about, and burning tar
ana sui pnurous f1nles bcfoul the air under the
profession of purifying it. When I look out
on the dark, silent street, and these vapors are
waited through the open window, feel the
oppressiveness OF the presence Of death with
that horrible odor of carbolic acid which
rises from the little saucers beneath the coffin.
tits
A CITY WITHOUT PEOPLE,
this. The echo of MY music, as whistle to
keep my courage up, comes back ii, q sort of
vail that jars on my ear. It is almost as bad
as midnight stroll in a graveyard, ones i'm
agination assisting to picture the hand Of death
reaching out from the corner of every bad
smelling alley. To have lived in. Memphis for
the past ten days is almost to have grown gray,
with fright. The wild panic which seized the
deck or car-platf form, the agony Of fright pic
tured everywhere, on every ones face, were
trying enough to the stoutest. More trying,
however, it has been to see the death rate
gradually crawl up, to see fam fliar names
on the death-roll and in the record of the
death relaxing aud stretching forth to grasp
wider hold on the doomed. city. Then
: THE HEARsEs BEGIN TO GO BY ON TRoT,
and a man mathematically inclined could sit
down and figure on his chances, and from the
ratio of deaths to new cases. learn that If
attacked by fever he would hold the chance Of
one out Of two principals in duel where but
one pistol was loaded with ball, the space being
over a handkerchief and he must choose his
weapon blindfolded. Ugh!I am but hin man;
and L SILVER ct the thought. No wonder then,
that so few are left, held BY necessity or a
higher purpose. noble and philanthropic. e. No
wonder that tiX!ee physicians have turned pa
tients themselves, and on their own prescrip-
tions sought'a cooler cline. - '7'A+'' :
The panic that made ours !: silent, sleeping
city, however, was a Godsend. It snatehed
from the monster the human lives upon which
he feeds. 10 increase the exodus has been the
! aim Of the benevolent societies, <;Ii4 ;Aui,
- You have read of the governments charity,
| of its thousands of tents and its thousands of
rations, a gratis presentation to our distressed
city. The tents are pitched on high hills in
regularly governed camps about the city. So
iIr THE BENEvoLENcE or A HUNDRED CITIES
is sending food for their poor unemployed ,oc-
cupants, and "leave the city or die is the CRY
of the true men who are. fighting with all of
human strength this awful scourge. Strange
to say, many will not accept their offer of Safe
! ty, but cling to their howell homes though death
grins upon them from every crack in the wall.
Yesterday the negroes held q mass-meeting, and
an effort was made by the mayor, our member
| of Congress, and Others to get them to agree to
60 out into camp, play gentlemen Of elegant
leisure ind refined ease there, and be we'll fed
! free a of;sa charge" Do, you think they
would consent? No. they wouldn't You see
they remember the plague Of 1874, and that
then the saffron reaper jumped the black ears
in his harvest of death, It is useless to tell
them that negroes are falling like sheep in the
streets of Grenada and Vicksburg,' for they
still cling to their theory and demand to be fed
in the city at their homes Already; q dozen
negroes have been attacked by the plague, and
there is every. evidence that, it. will spread
among the race. ;. The hearses will! have, to
take many boxes from their homes before
their; faith in their exemption can be
shaken: III the surrender Of life and prop
erty into their hands, however, by tho!
exodus Of white people, they are discharging;
their; trust with q faithfulness that reminds
one Of the dark days of civil war, when the
slave protected the home, protected the. wife
and little ones while the master was bivouack-.
ing far away OH the field of battle. For the