The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1878-09-27
Scarcely q Laughing Matter.
memphis Appeal


Memphis people visiting Boston laugh at the
reports which the Associated Press has sent
North, They say things not nearly so bad
The above, from Boston paper, was
sent to one of the telegraph operators en-
ployed here by the Western Union Tele-
graph Company, aud by Mr.. Catron, the
local agent of the Western Associated
Press, to whom he gave it, was handed to
us. We would give worlds, had we them
to give, to know the names of the Mem
phians, who, Absenting themselves from
their homes from fear of the fever, mock
at the pangs and sufferings of three thous-
and sick, laugh over the twelve hundred
dead men, women, and children who sleep
in ElmwOod and Calvery cemeteries, and
the Potter's field, and deride the needy
widows and orphans, and hungry, unem
plOyed laboTers, who clamor for the food
doled out to them day by day. the charity,
not OF Memphis people who enjoy Boston
and laugh over the press reports, out, thank
God, of millions who never met any Mem
phians, but who are moved by tie plain.
simple, unvaTuished statements of Mr..
CatrOn, who, to our knowledge, has always
been under, rather than over the mark.
Memphis people visiting Boston may laugh,
but we, who are here, are daily, hourly, in
tears for .he manly men and sanity women,
many of whom might have fed, but who
preferred to share the fate of their humbler
fellow citizens, and have fallen in the cause
of humanity. But there must be some
mistake abUCt it. Surely there is not one
of all the thousands OF Memphians who
are safe from the pestilence that takes irs
hundreds per day or more, who would
laugh over the reports, even though they
were exaggerated, which they are not.
Surely there is not one SO lost to shame, 10
the cOmmonest decenCy, as to laugh while
n tina
and the open hand of charity ministers to
our wants from all parts of the earth. To
lose over 200 men, women and children
IN twenty-seven days, out Of a population
of $1,000, white and black, aud TO be ex-
pending over $4,000 for 200 nurses and
forty doctors, and for medicines and food
for more than 3, 200 sick and 10, 600 indi-
gent, is to us a sad reality, enough TO move
even stone to tears. But besides this
there come the tales of individual sorrow :
of whole families swept away in week
leaving not even one of the name of
nurses dying at their posts; of priests and
ministers, aud good sisters following those
they succored so fast as to appall the stout
est heart, and give us pause amid the
general wreck and ruin. No pen can do
these scenes aud sights justice no tongue
eXaggerate them. Lispiug childhood, hOary
and venerable old age, the vagrant and the
lever, all are taken, all claimed alike by
the awful pestilence. 1t thins all ranks,
and brings sorrow to the mansion, the cot
taSe and the cabin. The cry of the faith
erless Is heard every hour claiming the
pity, the sympathy, and the tears of the
most hardened veteran. In this Office, as
we write, there are but two left of all who
month ago were employed in the editorial
counting and composing rooms, and our
pTessman is down with the fever. Stran-
gers to the office, as to the business, are
attending to our affairs, while the only
editor left ON duty alternates, through six
teen hours day, between his desk and a
case. This is our personal measure of the
dreadful epidemic, and surely it is a sad
one. 1t has moved us to tears many a
time the past ten days, although we are not
used to the melting mood. Our experience
is one we will never forget, and IL is a com
mon one. The fifth epidemic we have
passed through, this surpaSseS them all IN
the horrors it has uncovered. Parents
have deserted children, and children par
ents, husbands their wives, but not one
wife a husband. Men have dropped dead
on the streets, while others have died ne
elected, only to De discovered by the death.
spreading gases from their bodies. Little
children, clamoring for the food she could
no longer give, have appealed to the dead
mother, who gave up her spirit as she gave
birth to her last, in an agony of the fever
Ministers of the Gospel, carrying message,
/ OF peace, hurrying from house to hOuse
| have had their weary feet arrested anC
their work stayed by the pestilence, thai
walks in the MONDAY as at night. The
priest administering the extreme junction
and the bride of Christ wiping the death
! damp from the forehead of those whose
! friends and kinfolk are far away, are al
most paralyZed in the sacred act, and die
even before we know they are sick The
! business of the hour is the succor of the
sick, the burial of the dead, and the care
of the needy living. The last words o
those who are well are at night farewells tC
the dead, and the first in the morning
"Who lives and who has died - All day
and every hour of the day, this question il
repeated, and the heart sckens az the re-
port, aud the soul grows weary over the
repetition. And yet there is no relief MOI
any release. Worse and worse the epi
demic has grown, until to day it has cap
ped the climax, and the hearts of the brave
men who have stood in tie ibTeach are
blanched with fear, with dread that an
initiation awaits us, and that we are des-
tined To be blOIted from the earth. Feal
sits on every face and dread ON every heart.
We work, not in the shadow, but in the
very face Of death. We meet him on every
hand aud at every moment in the names OF
his victims and in the deSOlatiOn he has
spread about us. Hope we have none
I We despair Of any relief, but we are neTve6
for the end We pray blessings upon the
generous who have helped us in all the
states we pray for the safety of those who
have come among us to nurse the sick and
minister to the dying, and we ask that the
names of the women and the men who have
| laid down their lives for Us shall be handed
down forever as among the brightest and
/ best of earth.