Connecticut western news., 1878-10-30
THE GREAT PLAGUE.
THE PLAGUE WHICH VISITED LONDON IN 1664-5 AND CREATED SUCH WIDE SPREAD HAVOC,

l. the West End the wealthy and noble gathered around Westminster and 1 Whitehall, in the city and the eastern suburos trade had revived. The river was full of ships, the streets filled with an overhowing tide of life.
 For long time it had been known in London that the plague had been raging on the Continent, brought from the East by some unlucky trader; but in the winter of 1864 only few cases had been noticed in the capital, yet these were enough to excite deep anxiety. Men watched the reports of the deaths in the different parishes eagerly. "We had no such thing as printed newspapers in those days" says Defoe, "to spread ru- mors and reports of things, and improve them" But the rumor of the approach of the disease had already reached Lon- don. In November two men, said to be Frenchmen, died in Drury Lane the physicians declared they had died of plague. It was noticed that the num- Der of deaths around St. Giles's greatly increased; it was whispered that the plague was there, and few cared to ven- ture through Drury Lane. But the winter came on sharp and bleak, and seemed to kill the disease, as if it could only flourish in the hot air of summer. It disappeared wholly. It revived in May-a cool, pleasant month it lin gered in the filth and squalor of St. Giles's, and in June broke into fearful activity. The pestilence had come the citizens who were able closed their houses, shops, and fled. The court had gone to Oxford for weeks the streets were filled with throngs of people nov ing to the country on horseback, on foot, carrying their furniture, goods, wares, the rich and poor mingled in a common calamity.
 But many were forced to stay, and on these the pestilence fell with almost unaccountable fury. The hot weather of July reused it to virulence; in August in was fearful in September the horrors told of it surpass belief. It first ap- peared with tumor or under the arm, hard, painful, horrible-the plague-spot
 The physicians when they saw the fearful omen would cry, {" Lift up your eyes to God !" In few hours it was fatal. Sometimes the patients sank under raging fever, headache, some times faded away in a swift decline, almost painless some seemed to die of frfnht. hononI 4ho-ooo1x,oc 4o escape it some were seized in the streets, and died before they could reach their own doors. In September 5000 persons died weekly, and 6O,ooo, it was believed, were infected. The Lord Mayor of the city, his sheriffs and alder men, remained bravely at their post they did all that men 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 tolllng of bells, no outward ceremonial. But at night the fatal cart began it's rounds, and at every infected ouse the cry was heard "Bring out your dead" They were thrown together 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 covered with earth. Every house that was infected was isolated @ watchman stood at the entrance no one was suffered to go Tn or out except the physician upon the door was placed large red cross in- scribed: "Lord have mercy on us. !" They might well 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 miserable 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 watch men 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 Tunbridge; his conons remained, and some of their letters to the dean still exist-the cry of utter despair.
 Whole streets of houses were shut ur and abandoned; men fled from each
 other when they met; the money paid tc the butcher or baker was fum1gated
 thieves wandered through the deserted shops and dwellings, and sometimes die6 there. Fearful tales were told of nurses who smothered and robbed their patients
 of deeds of horror that were never pun. p ished; of the infected who ran shriekine , through the streets, and fell dead o1 homes where all had died together August, September, passed on with ever growing horrors in November the colder weather seemed to check the dis
 ease, and many who came back too has tily were infected and died. At last, ir ! December, the great deliverance came , the pestilence had ceased. A wild, {
 fearful, joy spread over the afflicted city it's people came back once more to the desolate scene, maddened with strange ,, exhilaration. Those who survived were crazed with the joy of living. Once , more the great city was thronged witt the rich, busy, gay; the court and king l came back a rigid law was passed te < punish Dissenters; the revels and crimes ' of Whitehall began again but nothing f was done by court or king to prevent tho I return of that awful scourge that haG
 so recently passed away. A mightiel
 power intervened. A new calamity ! 4c ,>roryop+ tho IJ-