San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1878-12-21
ATMEMPHIS.
R,Seesions tsr Returning Refugees.
Memphis Appeal

memphis Appeal
,sv more days and tho $4,000 refu'
- Memphians, who are scattered over
3. uuion, from the Atlantic to the Pa
.sc. and the lakes to the Ohio river,
' =, ,s,urn to their homes. They will
=, -. ,olcomed by few, very few, the sur
:.,rs Of what must pass into history as
,ss Great plague of 1878. They will have
INV questions to ask. and will look in
in for friends who have long since
Ton mustered with tho dead. Nearly
.ur thousand of their fellow citizens,
,ounting those who died far from home
md friends, have fallen victims to the
.,our6s, among them hundreds OF men
IA women who were Of the most valued
A. our population. Men and women who
\, industry, talent, the energy, and force
Il those virtues the good prize most,
,.a won for themselves o recognized
nl,ce in every avenue Of industry and in
society. Preachers and priests who min
;stered at affairs now dcsolate, who were
the exemplars of an earnest piety and
,be leaders of Christian hosts, are silent
,ov forevermore." Many of the coun-
.ellors. guides, and advisors of the COM
;ur generation who in oil the occupa-
tious of life were looked up to with pride,
have Joined the "innumerable throng."
Hundreds, too, of the honest poor, the
mtient multitude who bear the heat and
burden of the day, will be missed, and
none will be able to tell more of them
than that they have passed away, have
hid down the weary load of life, have
ceased TO struggle, and are at rest. Chill
dren will return to their schools and call
for loved companions who can no longer
hear the summons, and the servant will
\ ssk for the master, and the master for
the servant, now dumb in death. Day
after day will reveal to the returned alb
sntee the dreadful widespread destruc-
ton of life, and perhaps after months of
inquiry, the full effects of the visitation
will dawn upon him us we know it who
have withstood it face to face. Then
The torture of suspense he himself en-
iured will dwindlo down to nothing,
and the plague will reveal itself in all its
force as a warning against the indiffer-
ance and reckless disregard of health
and life that have hitherto characterized
us The many hundred orphans, the
helpless widows and the men who walk
our streets in mute despair, all that are
leftof onceh happy households will height
en- the sad picture, intensity its gloom,
and perhaps quicken the impulse for
prompt reform which should be result,
which must be resultif we would avoid
arepetitioa of the sad experience of the
last six months. We must have sanitary
reform; We must have the Nicolson
pavement taken up this winter, whether
We can replace it or not; we must sewer
The bayou, and we must establish q
health board on basis so strong that it
auenforce its own DEGREES through the
courts and compel obedience by poor
and rich alike to the laws, the disregard
(which has cost us 80 much sorrow. If
'nls is not done recurrence OF the
plague is only question of time, and
mother such visitation means the death
noe only of good citizens, but the de-
@uctlon of Memphis. Life is too short,
aae best, to be jeoparilized even every
I've Or twenty-five years by the yellow
S'ef' and no prospects, however fattcr-
Dg will repay the losses in trade which
our merchants and business men have
US TALL been forced to bear.
journalistic .ln,enities.