Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-03-10
OLIVE LOGAN.
Plague Take the Russians LEA Glance
Baokward---The Establishment Of
Hospitals for the Better Glasses
---Her Malesty's Tower
Bret Harte's Dinner.
'pccial Cor. Cincinnati Enquirer.l

the lrlgntIul massacre IN Lululani
people are really beginning to fee
anxiety about the Siberian plaguu
which is decimating its thousand.
daily all over Russia. In these day
of rapid transit and unlimited inter
communication it would be a Difficult
matter to establish anything like effcc
tive quarantine, and when we hca.
reports of there being not one house Of
cottage in the whole Russian Empirl
in which there are not lying two o.
three sick, and perhaps one or TIVE
dead, it certainly looks rather alarm.
ing. Several false reports having al.
ready arrived here, increase the public
agitation. People remember Macau-
lays thrilling description Of the deci,
nation caused by the first outbreak Of
Asiatic cholera in London and who
Of us has not read those fearful chron-
icles of the great plague, when mothers
forsook their children, husbands their
wives, and physicians their patients,
in abject terror and fear Of contagion (;
when the dying could not get a drop of
water to cool their fevered lips; when
after nightfall great numbering carts
creaked their heavy wheels through
the otherwise empty streets, the brutal
drivers stopping at every house aud
shouting. " Pitch out your dead
In one of the novels written by
Charles Broeckden Brown, an Ameri-
can author who wrote about one
hundred years ago, there is bloud-
curdling description of similar scenes
which were enacted in Philadelphia at
the time the scourge ragged there, with
the additional point O horror of there
being often sick people, yet living,
who were thrown into the dead-carts.
The yellow fever scOurge of last sum
mer is still fresh in our minds, when
all that art, and science, and wealth
could do to assuage suffering and stop
the rayages of the disease seemed ut
terly pOwerless to effect their object.
| was in one of the most frightful
cholera epidemics that ever ragged in
Cincinnati. Ithinkit was in the year of
'49or 80. Thank God, the citizens ofthe
beautiful Queen Of the West have no
cause to reproach themselves for any
moral cowardice displayed in those
trying days. | was a child, but the
impressions are mdelible which were
made on my mind of noble self-s"cri-
fee and splendid chivalry performed
at that time by quiet persons who had
lived their lives without their neigh
bors ever once dreaming that there.
dwelt unparalleled heroism among us.
Yet for all the weary months of one
pitilessly hot summer the Knight of
the Pale Horse caracOled in the
hushed thorOughfares, where usually
the noisy traffic of a great city bur
dened the air, and Jew and Gentle
bargained in the mart or squabbled in
the Rialto concerning the number of
pearls to be paid for swine. Now, all
was silence, and when the morning
star arose its first rays illumined
Death when the purpling hues of
sunset painted the western Sky by the
light Of the penumbra of the sinking
sun people read of Death, mortal
agony and torturing Death.
My mother was stricken with the
scourge. We occupied a three-story
brick dwelling house in Third street.
nearly opposite Mr.. Longworth's es-
tate. She lay, with the wings of her
mortality ready plumed for fight, in
the second-stOry front bedroom, look
ing out on Third street. From Mr..
Longworth's garden came the heavy
sweetness of flowers which no one had
the heart to pluck, of fruit which no
none had the stomach to eat. It rot
ted on the branch. and helped to infect
the atmosphere, already teaming with
dangerous germs. While my mother
lay w%avering on deaths threshold. the
pretty little Mrs. Kent, one of the
greatest dramatic favorites Cincinnati
eyerknew. WA also taken down. Every
one liked this Jolly little woman. an
estimable wife and mother, a sort of
leesl DeEa Jordan. or Mrs. Abingdon.
who trotted of TO market every mar
ket day. knew all the hucksters per-
%sOnally, and was immensely popular
with them, and who, after her day Of
marketing and homework, at night
appeared on the boards Of the Old
National, and delighted play-goers
With her rOllieking assumption of some
comedy soGhTette. She was stricken
ono morning. Ny sldest brother was
out about the town all dag, doing his
quota Of work for the suffering. At
midnight lao came in. | sat tanning
my mother. heard bis key in the
doOr-latch, and his quick foot, three
steps at a time, on the stairs. Mother
OpsaQd her eyes. slow is Mrs. Kent?'
she asked. "0h, she is better" he
answered with q nod and a smile.
never leaving hold of the bslustrade.
bit proceeding up to his room. lie
knew she was dead. And part of his
heroism Of tho day vas bis light step
and his easy nod and his bright smile
and the holy falsehood that passed his
lips, My mother recovered.
One af the most praiseworthy move
ments that / ksVe heard Of for some
time, and one which [ hone will be
followed at home, is the establishment
% heme hospitals for the well-to do.
Everybody Knows that a moderately
well-of persop=tbst is, one who BIZ
constant work in steady employment
can lust barely make both e6ds meet
but whq u qgite as refined and educa.
Ted as if be were eiober-is really Tho
most helpless being on earth when h,
is taken ILL., Living ID d hotel oI
clearinghouse, which very likely X
none too comfortable under the be-.
l0f circumstances, what fate await,
him when he is sick Yet he can no
go to a hosHiqb for he is not a pauper
The idea is repugpals 20 him, ever
were the course practicable. 4 CON
: tosLSble home, where nursing Is un