Daily press and Dakotaian. [volume] (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1875-1880, 1878-09-13
Che Daily arfss aud 1akotaiau
YkkkTON DAKOTA
Friday Evening, Sept. 10, 1873
A MEMPHIS CAM.

MEMPHIS CAMP.
No Wome" saved-The subtlest sco"rss
World has Ever Experience Heart.
re"dinE sights.
Louisville Courier-J0nrnal.
The following letter from q prominent
citizen OF Memphis to a commercial house
in this city Is exceedingly interesting, and
contains some facts and topics which We
have not seen elsewhere:
CAMP 10. WILLIAMS, 41-2 MILES SOUTH.
Sept. l, IL Midnight.-Mess1s. CoynwaN Dc
BRO: l have yours Of the 3lst, with check
for $25, which will be used for milk for
the little ones Of this camp. You were
exceedingly thoughtful.
We have had a trying and desperate fight
With the fever at this camp. but l begin to
leel that we ave conquered. You can
form no idea of the distress. Women in
child birth. surrounded by little ones, quar-.
tered in tents, see one by one pass from
their sight on to the hospital, thence to the
grave. Soon the babe is born, yellow as
gold the mother liogers a few days, and
then she, the last Of the household, is nut
under the ground. We ssve no women
who are attacked. Such as are pregnant
m'scarry; Others, when attacked, have pre.
mature hemorrhage before the regular
monthly period, and there is no cure fer
such. Yesterday a women and two pretty
daughters OF IL and 16 walked from the
train TO my tent, and reported for assignment
to quarters. From my familiarity with the
disease, [ at ohce remarked: "Wby, wo-
man, your " girls have the fever" The
eldest one said: mo, sir, Indeed: I never
lelt better in my life. l had a little chill
Yesterday. but am we'll now" Her pulse
showed l95. temperature 104, eyes CLASSY,
skln pnhed, and the whole countensnce a
beautiful pink. In order 10 quiet and graft
fy the mother, l put up a tent near me for
the night. Next morning l had them ex.
amined, and both were sent 10 the hosnital.
was down there this noon. The mother
is PROSTATE with nervous prostration, and
the children lie in the potter's field.
just now l toted q fellow 10 tent near the
hospital. have had men hunting for him
all day. He has been lodging US. He
swears nothing is the matter with him. Hia
pulse is 1876 and temperature LOG. He is
literally burning up. He will be dead by
noon tomorrow.
There are fresh arrivals. We have four
hundred who have been out from the CITY
sufficiently long TO be regarded safe. We
are building houses and establishing q new
camp to which all who have been beyond
the infected districts ten days will be re.
moved. 1t more arrive we will able to say
We have snatched from certain death ASS
souls. We have q thorough system. The
camp is LAID out in streets, each tenement is
numbered, and q complete register is kept
OF every inmate. New arrivals occupy
q street CALLED Quarantine square.
we nave 4uartermaster, commissary, un.
deftaker, physician, purveyor and military
force. We have a large warehouse and
brick oven, soup-house, and every apnoint.
ment the emergency suggests.
This disease Is yellow fever, or is. in fact.
the malarial fever of this coast. intensified
by the introduction of the germs Of shin or
Asiatic fever. 1t is the most subtle scolroe
the world has experienced, and battles ali
medical experience. A person of intelli.
gence, when first attacked with the malaria1
symptoms, if he be administered to at once
with the usual treatment, wrapped nm in
blankets and nursed carefully. NAV mill
through. None but the rich can in times
like the present command special attention.
The masses are treated by the wholesale. and
all alike few recover.
The first symptoms are heaviness and a
slight chill, then suppression of the urine.
pulled face, CLASSY eye, a beautiful flush skin
pink eye-lids, pulse 100, temperature lO3 to
-loo: Soon vomito begins, which is simply a
slight hawking sound and splitting Of a COT:
.fee.ground substance from the stomach
which sinks to the bottom of the vessel
lhe patient, after such emission, feels we'll
and would get up if allowed. No pain. no
evidence of concern, either by look or &C.
ton: The pulse begins to run down to 90.
~, ~, 81, 40; then comes the pinched nos.
tril and mechanical breathing. They ait nm
want to get up, are induced to lie down. and
quietly pass away
Thursday night as l was making the
rounds, l cav = woman returning from the
lntrmary with a vial of medicine. It was
e.prinkling a little. She went into her tent.
lit a candle and lay down. In q few mo,
ments l heard an alarm. Women and chill.
dren were running wild about that portion
OF the camp: l fastened there, when nv
eyes beheld q most h%eartrendine sight.
This woman's babe, nine months old. was
lying on its mothers breast, and she was
dead. came near having a stampede.
Ihe child wa cared fol, the mother taken
away, and the tent burned with its contents.
1t this humid atmosphere hangs about
your cities on the Ohio, and you have not a
thorough system Of drainage, you can not s-
cape it; SO keep your lamps burning. You
may escape it this year, but a similar mild
winter, wet spring, intensely hot, humid at
mosphere, will prepare the way for yellow
Jack in every avenue of commerce tributary
to this Mississippi valley from ST. Louis
south and from Pittsburgh west. You cam
not escape it save by a thorough system Of
sewerage, Even then you may perhaps
have it in a less aggravated type.
pray YOU may be spared the scourpe.
My wife is surely distressed with anxiety
for my safety,eand. hss re~sorted-to every
device to draw me from hence. I am in for