Sharp County record., 1878-11-14

fright; some hanged themselves 10 es-
cape it; some were seized In the streets,
and died before they could reach their
own doors. In September 5000 persons
died weekly, and 10000, it was believed,
were infected. The Lord Mayor of the
city, his SherifIs and Aldermen, remain
ed bravely at their post; they did all
that man could do. They ordered,
when too late, the streets to
be purified; funerals-or rather
burials-were only to be performed at
night; there was to be no tolling of
bells, no outward ceremonial But at
night the fatal cart began its rounds,
and at every infected house the cry was
heard: /" Bring out your dead!" They
were thrown tOgethar in huge piles; in
the church-yards deep pits were dug,
and here by the gleam of torches the
bodies were thrown in and lightly cov-
eled with earth. Every house that was
infected was isolated; watchman
stood at the entrance; no one was suffer-
ed to 90 in or out except the physician;
upon the door was placed a large red
cross inscribed: "Lord have mercy on
us" They might we'll cry for mercy.
The air seemed tainted; grass
grew in once crowded streets; the trade
of the great capital was lost; the ships
hung idly in the Thames; the misera-
BILE poor died by thousands, and saved
the city from the cost of feeding them,
which it never had failed to do. The
recreant King and Court might fly from
the scene of duty, but the city officials
showed no trace of fear. The Mayor
was constantly in the streets; even the
Constables and Watchmen were seldom
at rest; many of them died. Day and
night at last, an observer relates, the
labor of burial went on. Sancroft,
dean of St. Paul's, had fled to Tun-
bridge; his canons remained, and some
of their letters to the dean still exist
the cry of utter despair.
Whole streets of houses were shut up
and abandoned; men fed from each
other when they met; the money paid
to the butcher or baker was fumigated;
thieves wandered through the deserted
shops and dwellings, and sometimes
died there. Fearful tales were told OF
nurses who smothered and robbed their
patients; of deeds of horror that were
never punished; of the infected who ran
shrieking through the streets, and fell
dead; of homes where all had died to-
gsther. August, September, passed on,
with ever-grOwing horrors; in Novem-
Der, the colder weather seemed to check
the disease, and many who came back
too hastily were infected and died. At
last, in December, the great deliver
ance came; the pestilence had ceased.
A wild, a fearful joy spread over the
afflicted city; its people came back once
more to the desolate scene, maddened
with a strange exhilaration. Those who
survived we're crazed with the joy of
living. Once more the great city was
thronged with the rich, busy, gay; the
Court and King came back; rigid law
was passed to punish Dissenters; the
revels and crimes of Whiteha all began
again; but nothing was done by Court
or King to prevent the return of that
awful scourge that had so recently
passed away. A mightier power in
tervened. A new calamity seemed to
prevent recurrence of the old. The
great fire in London soon followed,
swept over the tainted ground, con-
sumed churches and church-yards-St
Paul's and Ste. Mary 's-shops, ware
houses, palaces, novels, cleansed many
a narrow close, purified many scene OF
horror. The city was rebuilt with wider
streets, better buildings. Perhaps It's
citizens had learned neatness and pro-
priety; but it is certain that the plague
never came again, and that by the la
bors of modern science the vast capital
has been made one of the healthiest and
most fortunate of cities.
Let MS study the science OF health.
Let us have sanitary party, league
for sanitary improvement. The plaques
that desolated the world in the Middle
Ages were the result in great part OF ig-
norance; they have been nearly driven
back to their Eastern source. The pest
that ravaged London still haunts the
Levant; the cholera is seldom absent
from Hi Hindostan. The Black Death, II
we are indolent, may come again. Hap
PLY the laws of health have been taught
in the family, the school. Education
has baffled disease in all civilized coun-
tries, and checked at least it's fercest
forms. But in our New World cities we
have sometimes forgotten the lessons OF
the past. We have trusted too macn 70
our pure skies, limpid streams, brilliant
suns or biting frost. The laws OF health
disobeyed in New Orleans have made 1t
the scene of constantly recurring dis
ease. From New Orleans the pest is
conveyed to the neglected towns and
villages of the North. Who can tell
how fast it may spread in the future,
what new scenes it may visitP Let us at