Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1879-01-25

the countless horrors of this period
they have been in mems thoughts
and words, they have been present
as hideOus nightmare in our very
dreams. Suffice it that ii put the
finishing blow TO the ruin almost
consummated before. She lost full
six months of business activity and
came to the renewal of her labors
with crippled resources and par
alyzed energies. She went into it
helplessly overburdened, she came
out of it utterly crushed and pros
trate, all the fonsento of disease in
viting future visits of the destroyer,
and no means of removing them.
AFTER THE PEsTILENcE.
As soon as the plague receded
men returned to the place of their
ruined means and began to consider
about repairing their disasters.
They found everything to do and
nothing to do it with, everything
disorganized and out of gear, mu-
nicipal rule dislOcated, sanitary
arrangements worse than inopera-
tive, and, when they cast about for
the means of remedy, means there
were none; taxes could not be col
Iected and, if they could, the innu-
merable judgments against the city
covered all that could be raised and
many times more than could be
raised with naundomltS after Dldadd-
mas.
1t is estimated that the now re-
duced value of means assessible foF
taxes in Memphis il less than seven
teen millions of dollars, from which
it is required to raise four hundred
and fifty-twO thousand six hundred
and sixty-two dollars for the current
expenses of the city, which with
taxes for sinking fund, for city
schools and for State and county tax
will impose a burden of over $500
on the 500; and even this makes
no provision for the pressing neces-
stiles of sanitary measures. The
rotten planks of the Nicholson pave
ment and the fetid surface Of Gay
oso creek are still exhaling the ma
rails for pestilence. TocUrrect these
sources of disease and death would
cost two millions for the pavement
and one million for the Bayou and
the sewers which should drain it.
And for all these purposes, which
are question life and death to
the city, not only can no revenue
be raised but it cannot even begin
to be raised, for as soon as q dollar
is extorted from the taxpayers a
crowd of creditors are ready to
snatch it from the hands which hold
it and, under writ of mandamus,
to devote it to the payment of all
debts. We have before US a sched-
ule of these mandamuse5 extend
ing from 1875 to 1879 to the amount
of $847 1900, which have to be sat
isfied before dollar can be applied
to the current expenses of the city
or to rendering it habitahle. How
this is to be done no one sees. Sup
posing the charter abolished and
Memphis no longer a city, what
then? Shelby county can't do it !;
she petitioned legislature two years
ago for permission to compromise
her own debts at 40 per cent. The
State can't do it; she is at this time
declaring her incompetency to deal
with her own bondhOlders, and
what then have we to look for.
Nothing that we can see except
that the once rich city shall fall into
ruin, and her territory degenerate
into the unreclaimed swamp and
silent forest which it was before the
first shanty was built at the mouth
of Wolf rivera ruin as complete as
that which, centuries ago, Oblite-
rated her ancient prototype, old
Memphis on the Nile.