Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1879-03-16
THE TAXING-DISTRICT
As She is Painted by n German Core
spOndeat-It was Not the YeilOW.Fe-
yer that Compelled the Substitu-
tiOn OF the Taxing-District
Government
For that of the City, but the EgO,ism, the
Selflshness of its MOney-Making Citi-
Zens, who Paid No Attention TO
its AfTairs-SOme Home
truths.

zens, who Paid No Attention to
its Afairs-SOme Home
truths.
Special correspondence OF the New York Staats-Zei-
tung- Translated FOR the Appeal.
MEMPHIS, February l6.-The good city of
Memphis, in the State Of Tenuessee, 4
few days ago yielded up her spirit. A few
months ago, flew away or died her citzsrs,
and now she herself Is dead. There Is no
more Memphis. The question now Is, What
was the malsdy OF which the city died? Ii
Is atmarveious story which you hear in tue
streets Of that city that once was called Men
phls. Abroad In the States, naturally tae
yeliow-iever will be probably taken as tle
cause OF the present misery. Bat then, this
Is not SO. HeilOw-JaCk has of course repeat
eddy rayaged, devastated the city. Ia 1870
the fever came FOR tle first tine. The inhat-
ltants died like flies, but they were replaced
by others, and In a few months ali ysstges of
the misfortune were o6hteTated. In 1861
1eiiow-Jack came for the second time; again
1t ragged within the walls of the city, but the
inhabitants did not heed the lesson of this
second visitation All remained as uf yoIe.
la 1873 it came the third time, and ragged
more terrible, more awful than ever. Moth
ing could escape the InsIdious disease. Harse
thousand persons died within two months
The city was but one vast cemetery. A No
vemter frost at last drove away the fever
germs, and fourteen days afterward Memphis
| counted more inhabitants than she has mad
within the last ten years. But, again every
thing remained OF old. The Inhabitants
| did not concern themselves about the past
| misery, nor did they think about any coming
evil. Their sole arm was gain. Memphis
| was not inhabited by bunglers, bat by
| pCrntlSts UbCsa solo Gxorf1nnS uvpvp frFsrtat
| toward money making Selhshness Is toe
great motto of the city's misery. The COM
| munity, the public, and common veal,
| the place wherein they lived, were nothing 60
them; only their own persons did they wish
to enrich, and, when rich enough, they emit
grated with their money. Memphis. there
tore, remained, after the terrible epidemic Of
1873, as dirty, filthy and miserable as before.
No cock crew about the condition of the city
The COZ sequences could be foreseen. For the
fourth time the yellow-fever has foisted itself
into the streets, the houses, the swamps aud
the mudholes of Memphis and ragged with
vlrulencs which words are inadequate to de-
scribe. OF the sixty thousand inhabitants of
the city, forty thousand ran away; twenty
thousand, among them 'Felve thousand col
ored, remained. Eighteen thousand, of these
were taken sick. Nearly all the Inhabitants
had to undergo the terrible yellow Sickness,
and of these eighteen Thousand Eve thousand
showed Its extraordinary toughness ana Vi
tally which borders upon unoelIef. Hardly
had the epidemic passed, hardly had the
members Of the ironically called board of
health announced the last death from yellow
fever, than the return to Memphis began. Ga
New Years day of 1879, the city again
| counted as many inhabitants as before. The
traces of the yellow fever and their conse-
quencs were obhterated, and the inhabitants
of Memphis are now unwllhngiy reminded
of the catastrophe of the past
year which converted the greatest
Mississippi river tow, lrt0 a cemetery. Thus
it was not the yei.oH-fever which placed
Memphis, the city liz jf, upon the death-llst.
The disease which used 1t was not IN the
| air, nor In the citl s miasma, but IN the
pockets of the cltlzei !, and IN the shameless
ness of the officials. 1t was epidemic,
| too, of fatal results, not tor men but for
cities-an epidemic of rings. A few carpet
| baegers had smuggled themselves into places
In the city government, contracted debts
| after debts, issued bonds which were Knocked
about the streets at half their nominal value,
| and did with the city like the farmer who
| sold his neighbours fields. The yellow-tever
| was always a good pretext for the making of
new debts for the repairing and paving of
streets, cleaning of sewers, etc. pretext
| for the issuing OF new bonds, Wi b which
| species of GSSigndtS contractors were pad,
while millions of money paid IN cash disap-
peared in the coat-tail pockets of those cum
| ming highway robbers. Journals published
| elsewhere may complacantly tell that Mem
| phis has had her sewers cleaned and her
| streets paved with the money of her creditors,
| but the most remarkable thing is that Mem
] Ihis has neither sewers nor pavements. The
| debts swelled up to five million dollars, and
now they, as well as the interest thereon, had
| to be paid and the finely printed coupons to
be cancelled when the creditors of the good city
| of Memphis presented them; but, ike every
| individual, the general council OF Memphis
| had its principle; theirs was never to pay any
debts contracted. A feeble effort, of course,
| was made to levy taxes, but the tax collectors
seemed more concerned about their own pr!-
| vate taxes than the taxes Of the city, since
they left many wealthy citizens unmol sted
and only compelled payment from those
| whom they had specially marked out. There
! fore, no more THAI one-fourth of any tax was
| collected. The authorities shrugged their
shoulders, turned their empty pockets inside
out, and offered to pay their creditors five
hundred dollars for every thousand-dollar
bond, and to reduce the eight per cent. IN
terest to six per cent. Then perhaps the
payment of the interest, and perhaps, also,
the payment of the entire debt, might be pos
sible. Naturally, it was not clear to the
owners of the city of Memphis bonds why
they should for the thousand dollars which
they had paid to the spectators for those
| bonds, have to take the doubtful FIVE hun
bred. Tuey complained to the courts, and
the consequence was mandamus, which
ordered the levyIng of new tax for the pay
ment of the interest. The collectors laughed
to themselves, TOR to them this was fresh
game. Again their friends were lett
unmolestel, and again the same merchants
who had paid the taxes the first time, were
called upon to deliver. A refusal was of no
avail, since there were stores of merchandise
which could be conhscated and sold. They
had again to pay a third time, while the
other half of the taxpayers, with those three
leVies and the yearly taxes since 1878, owed
in the aggregate upward of two million and
a half dollars. This throws a very character
Istic cul pabilIty upon the authorities and upon
a part OF the citizens. Of the five mil
lions, absolutely not one hundredth
part has been devoted to the real purpose,
for the city is in condition which beggavs
description. Policemen and fremen, with
wives and children, and other officials have
received no pay for months, since less money
Is to be found In the city treasury than IN
the Turkish excheQuer. These poor people
are to-day put off like in the days of the
Paris commune with GSsignGtS, which are
hardly worth one-halt of their nominal
value. Then again matured another turn Of
payment, and as the old back-taXes could not
be collected, and as the other Taxpayers had
already shrunk, somewhat like squeezed lem
ons, the malicious creditors turned TO the
Federal courts, for another issue of mauda-
mus, by which the city council should be
compelled to levy new taxes. Now the hon
est merchant threatened to leave the city,
and nothing more was to be got out of the
other citizens, and the whole city, with bag
and baggage, would have had to be sold to
the highest bidder at public vendue. Now
resorted the city to a very doubtful remedy,
which. it Is true, liberated her for the mo-
ment from the obligation of hquidatlpg her
debt. She sought help of the legislature Of
Tennessee, who repealed her charter and
thus made an end to the city. Memphis may
be said TO have run away from her creditors.
Of course, she has not disappeared from the
face of the earth-her houses still remain in
their old places, and her inhabitants still
follow their wonted occupations. But Mem
phis has ceased to be a city; she has no
mayor, no council, no representation, no
boundares, and is simply parcel of land of
the State of Tennessee, as any turnip- field
or any swamp. One Memphis paper, on
the day of the repeal of the charter, placed
the city of Memphis in the mortuary list,
while the other papers indicted not very fat
tering obituaries on the deceased. Memphis
to-day even exists less than her PharaOnic