Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-09-26
THE CITY OF WOE.

THE CITY OF WOE.
Graphic Description OF the DestitMtion,
Sickness and Death That Is Encountered
on Ecery Side TN the City of Memphis.
memphis Correspondence Chicago Tribune |
No language can fully illustrate the degree
of restitution, affection and death visible on |
every side. In tie streets nothing can be
seen save undertakers' carts, (hearses being a |
luxury only accessible at intervals physicians
hurrying in every direction, worn out, half
sick, and depressed at the prospect, yet hur
ing with rapid pace to cue in at the death"
Such are the sights and the only sights that
relieve the complete and incompatible mo-
notony apparent at all points. Street after
street is empty as the unnade grave; house
after house tenantless and desolate, with
naught but the scampering of rats or the
MoURNFUL HOWL OF AN IMPRISONED DOG,
left by its owner in the hurry of departure,
indicate the existence of life. Everything
about the city bears the impress of calami-
ty, dissolution and forgetfulness. This is as
true of Adams, Vance, Shelby and Poplar
streets, where in time of health the beauty
and chivalry of Memphis reign supreme, as
it is of "Happy-Hollow'' and 'sHell's Half
Acre." devoted to criminals, prostitutes, and
the incubation and commission of crime
Robson street has been completely wiped
out.
The air is filled with the stencil arising
from burning and decaying matter, from the
disinfecting mediums employed, vainly, as
some believe, and with the peculiar odor of
the disease itself, which cannot be ikened to
anything in the arcana of nature, but which
can never be forgotten by those who have in
hailed the poison. These features of the city
itself are reflected in the appearance of its
permanent and transient inhabitants. Sew
orally and collectively, though appalled, at
the dimensions and fatality of the disease,
they a.e the bravest of the brave.
At the corners of the streets, in the lobby
| of the hotel, at an occasional saloon kept
open by the very necessities of the disease,
| knots of
! CITIZENS, CALLoUsED TO FEAR
| by the experience through which they are
passing, meet when the days deaths are an
| nounced, and wonder if they forsaken
and left to wrestle with the grim visitor
unalded. They separate, called to the
loved ones at home, to the care of the
sick elsewhere, to receive dying message,
or shrive friend for the tomb. The
following morning one or more of them is
reported "dead,'' and the question, s'What's
necessary for his burial?" is asked almost
without ceremony, and with seeming haste
'You'n go next" is addressed to an &C.
quaintance with feigned POPULARITY, and the
prediction is nearly always verified. Some
times the victims to the plague die without
care, and are buried only when the stencil
arising from the decaying body indicates its
| location. n
| AS write this evening the air is filed
with poisonous gases from the body of a
negress, "Jenny," who was employed as
cook in a boarding house at the corner of
Third and Madison streets. Her remains
| are supposed to have lain where they were
found-in shed abutting on an alley to the
rear Of the Appeal office-for nearly ten
days, as that was the last time she was seen
alive. The body, bloated and eaten by rats,
presented a hideously repulsive appearance,
and the sickening stencil is only partially
dissipated by lump of camphor in front
of me. This may seem improbable to the
readers of the Tribune, but it is true, and
more's the pity. She was taken to the Pot
ter's field as soon as the burial force could
reach her remains, and the premises wherein
she died are undergoing the process Of fumi-
cation.
A THOUSAND TIMES MORE HORRIBLE
A short time back the house occupied by
a respectable resident Of the northern por-
ton of the city, was noticed as "smelling.''
mother was found occupying chair in the
center of the room, with her infant child, its
lips fastened with death-grasp to the
mothers nipple, dead and decomposing.
The husband and father, on his back on the
bed, had been dead some time, with the
vomito glued to the ceiling in black masses,
dead on the floor. The dust on the windows
had been several days gathering. For fea1
this picture may be doubted, I repeat, it's
truth.
man as we'll known as the city govern.
ment, buried his family last week and fol
lowed them to Calvary on Monday. He was
the fairest illustration it is said, of the devil
may care character of the Irish race ever
seen in Memphis. Impulsive, honest, SYM.
pathetic, fellow of infinite jest, the sur
prise that he was content with the position
of turnkey in police station found frequent
expression. He was accustomed to say that
when one of his family became sick he JUS
used to sew him up in blanket and tos.
him on the bed until the summons tt
''Bring out your deadp' was heard.
II ANOTHER CHARNEL.
Last Sunday morning the household of Fl
w. Blew, publisher of the Methodist pape
in this city, and residing on Pentotoc street
developed another of those terrible scent
which are hourly brought to light. Himself
his mother-in-law and three children wer,
found dead in their beds awaiting the call O
the undertaken and their consignment to tn,
, grave. AS soon as possible they we're taker
care of, and by noon they we're occupants O
the ''windowless chamber
WIDOW AND FIVE GROWN CHILDREN.
Awidow by the name of Flack, residing
at No. Ill Elliott street, in peace and hap
piness, surrounded by loving family tel
days ago, is now, with five grown children
sleeping meath the turf of Elmwood. Th
members of her family we're grown to mems
and women's estate, young, accomplished
fessionally and socially-not one Of them i
left to mourn the sad fate of the rest. Fou
:, died within twenty-four hours of eacl
other.
3 TO continue the subject further, listen t,
the fate of
B. F. PLUMMERs FAMILY,
resident of De Soto street. George, tn,
son, died first. No sooner was he bourne t.