Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1878-09-25
The Feyer.Stricken South.

DIR. Ramsey, an eminent Washington physician,
in n recent conversation with the WArCHMAN's
representative in that city gives the following
terrible account Of his recent visit to the yellow
fever districts of the South:
" Before reaching Memphis, even when five
miles out, the air was laden with the yellow fe-
yer poison, and a. he and his party approached
the city the stencil was absolutely sickening DR.
Pease and himself went to the Peabody hotel, the
only one open, and were shown into room from
which dead body had Just been removed Yes
sels Of black yomit were standing about the room
The hotel was perfect pest-house, and victims Of
the disease in nearly two-thirds of the rooms
Sulphur pans were kept burning in the halls, and
the clothes and bedding were constantly disin-
fected, but sufficient help could not be obtained
to do one-half the work necessary to be done.
Business of nearly every kind was suspended in
the city. The people seemed to have no heart to
attempt any regular business, and could not If
they would. Even the liquor saloons were closed,
and the provision stores, as n rule, We're empty.
Provisions and clothing are most needed The
negroes and many poor whites have hocked into
the city, hearing they could get something to eat,
WHILE as for clothes, hundreds Of poor people are
going about the streets with hardly anything to
cover them. The sights in this respect are de-
scrbed as especially distressing So far, no seri-
outbreak has occurred, but the better classes
are represented as in constant terror of riot
The city is in the hands of colored police, who,
thus far have behaved we'll The people who
come in from the country wander about in bands,
and when they find a vacant house they break in
and take possession, appropriating whatever they
want, while the authorities are powerless to pre-
vent 1t.
Fully four thousand people have been down
with the fever in Memphis alone, and the num-
her is said to be increasing The city has been
filthy to the last degree. The bayous which set
in from the river and the surface drainage with
which they are filled, the unceansed streets and
alleys, rotten wooden pavements, deep dust of the
macadamized streets, dead animals and putrefying
human bodies, and the half-buried dead, all COM
bine to make the atmosphere thick with poison
and something fearful to endure. Bonfres of tar
barrels and sulphur fires are kept burning all
over the city, but with little effect People die so
fast that trenches have to be dug in the Potter :
field into which dozens are piled promiscuously.
The dead carts are driven through the streets
night and day. The drivers stop in front of the
houses and cry out,
BRING OUT YOUR DEAD BODIES,
and when their carts are full they drive to the
burying ground. The drivers also find the dead
in alleys, in the parks, and in many places where
they have breathed their last unattended by any
one, 1t is said to be no uncommon thing for the
sick to be entirely deserted. DR.. Ramsey found
five women sick with the fever, whose husbands
had fled. This he understood was quite common
among the lower classes When no signs of life
are noticed about a house, il is broken open and
the dead are found in advanced stages of putre-
faction. The work of their removal is task be-
fore which the stoutest quail, The women seem
to suffer most OF the number attacked fully
eighty per cent die. They rarely ever get well,
and suffer much more than the men from hemor-
rhages, while the children are next on the NOR
tally list The principal medicines used are
calomel, quinine, nitrate OF potash and carboc
acid. As fast as the convalescents can get away,
their places are filed up.
"The reports from Grenada, Miss, are full of
horror A visitor writes that many of the citizens
left Grenada when the fever broke ont without
closing their houses and with only what apparel
they had on at the time; and it is said they will
return destitute to plundered homes The sick
and dying there are now suffering terribly for the
want of clean clothing and bedding as they have
no one to do the washing. The best of citizens
after death, are rolled up in their bedding just
as they died, and dumped into graves so shallow
that the horrible stencil rises night and day "a
| burden the air with Its poison. The living and
dead lie often on the same couch till an opportu.
nifty for burying the latter arrives The unfor.
tunate victims have nothing to eat, only cooked
food is sent. Some families, to the very last
member have died within few hours after the
first attack. The telegraph operator brave, heroic
spirit, compelled to bury his wife with his own
hands, and his footballs about her grave were the
only sounds to break the death-like silence OF
the place.
Congressman Ellis Of Louisiana, who has
Just made a brief visit in Washington, said that
1t would be impossible To express the heartfelt
gratitude OF the Southern people for the generous
treatment they have received from the North, In
their deep aiilictiOn Politics were entirely los
sight OF while the South was 50 terribly afflicted