The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1878-09-06

Sou9hwest-H0w Yellow Fever Began In
No. Orleans, aud Was Thence Scattered
Broadsest-The Desoiation of Grens da-
SAD Incidents OF the Epidemic.
New Orleans is not often entirely free
of yellow fever in summer, and a few
cases early in July last did not cause
alarm; but by the 1st of August the
plague, of which accounts have since
come disjointedly day by day, was fairly
started. During the first week in August
from ten to fifteen patients died every
twenty-four hours, or about % per
cent. of all who were stricken. The
news carried fright to the cities and
towns along the Gulf, ard guarantees
were generally established against the
incoming of the dreaded fever. The
terror was especially great in Texas, and
neither passengers nor freight were per-
mitted to come into the State by rail
road or boat from the infected city.
Even the mail service was suspended, 30
fearful were the people that the deadly
disease would reach them. Along the
Mississippi river measures almost equal
ly stringent were early adopted. Nor
lis Mayer, who slipped into Vicksburg
before the boat on which he had come
from New Orleans could be examined
by the health authorities, was fined
$3.50 and compelled to quit the city.
Business throughout the whole South
west was at once disordered and in a
great measure stopped. New York mer-
chants were told by telegraph not to
send goods that had been ordered, and
in most instances no such cOuntermand
was necessary, for there was good reason
to fear spread of the scourge, and who
could insure the lives of the debtors2
The disease held it's own in New Or
leans, and little more, the death rate
increasing steadily, so that on Aug. 10
twenty-five persons died of it. There
atuer the Health Board refused to give
the figures for publication, perhaps be-
ing ashamed that their neglect of duty
had helped the disaster, if not caused it.
The streets had not for fifteen years, or
since Benjamin F. Butler cleaned them,
been SO foul. No precautions of any
consequence had been taken, and
the city was in a condition to fall an
easy prey to the yellow enemy. Yet, as
though pitiful. the fever was not quick
to stay. 1t was not of an excessively
virulent type at first. The authorities
sought by activity to do, too late, what
little precaution might have made un-
necessary. They washed the streets by
flushing them with water from the river.
They spilled carbolic acid everywhere,
and, soon losing faith in that disinfect-
ant. used great quantity of fresh
burned lime, strewing it plentifully in
the foulest parts of the city. Physi-
clans, nurses and medicines were
furnished to all yellow-fever patients,
regardless of ability to pay. All of
these things failed to drive out the fever;
how much good they have done in
restricting the ravages can only be
guessed at. Certain it is that the num-
day, and the fever become SO virulent
that thoroughly acclimated persons were
attacked almost as readily as otkers.
Even those born and raised in the
city were numerously stricken, par
ticularly men whose systems were
already full of the poison of alcohol.
Although indifference to danger is a SEN
timent that, as abundantly proved by
experiment, is begotten by the presence
of pestilence, fugitives from New Or
leans were numerous after the dreadful
extent of the scourge was realized. 1t
is said that $4,000 residents have fled
from the city, scattering themselves
over the country and getting into quar-
antined places in spite of all efforts to
keep them out. They are in the main
of the wealthy classes. The poor are
left i'll terror and danger. Hardly any
business is now done in the city. The
commonest vehicles in the streets are
undertakers' wagons and physicians
carriages. Letters cannot be sent away,
and all communication with the outer
world is by telegraph. Gloom and con.
sternation ill all minds.
Dread of the pestilence was quickly
shown throughout the South, and meas
ures of safety were hastily taken in most
of the larger cities. In most instances
rigid guarantees were established but
some cities, like Louisville, did not at
tempt to exclude all visitors from the in
fected region, relying rather on more en-.
lightened sanitary defenses. There were
villages, however, which were supine in
their fright, and did nothing to avert
what they dreaded. Grenada was one of
tuest, duu lOT ucr III tuc pObslDle nor
rors of the disease were reserved.
Grenada is in Mississippi, at the head of
steamboat navigation on the Yallobusha
river, 275 miles north of New Orleans,
in direct line of railroad communica-
ton. There had been no quarantine,
and one or many of the visitors from
New Orleans, without doubt, brought
the disease. The inhabitants, half of
whom we're negroes, had been living as
though filth was not dangerous in hot
climate during pestilential season.
There were no public sanitary regula-
tions, and the streets were never thor
oughly cleaned. 1t is no wonder that
seeds of yellow fever, sown in such u
field, sprung up quick and rank.
The Mayor of Granada too late be-
came energetic, and his energy spent it.
self chiefly in cries for aid. He tele-
graphed to Memphis, eighty miles dis
tant, for physicians and nurses, and to
more distant cities for money. He ex-
hausted himself with two days of sleep.
less activity, and then fell before the fe-
Yer. IT is a popularity of the disease
that many of its victims do not know
when it is fixed upon them. They
acribe their unusual heat IN Soma other