Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1879-02-20
WHOLE NO. 1871
The Plague.

3
the alarms of war when a more for
midable enemy suddenly confront
her. The first news OF the advanc,
of "the plague" was received on III.
Sd instant, when dispatch from As
Itrachan announced that it was raging
there with fatal fury 1t is a fact
which the humanitarian philosophers
and moralists may effectively seize
upon as showing the evils of war, that
the awful disease which now threatens
the European continent with whole.
sale death was bre1ght back in the
baggage Of two Cossack regiments on
their return from the seat of war In
Asia Minor. The Peace Society will
not be slow to emphasize the direct
| link which is here presented between
War aud Pestilence so direct as to
suggest the relationship Of canse and
effest. The alarm with which the
grim visitors approach is viewed is
sufficiently attested by the nervous
activity suddenly infused into every
government in Europe. Bismarck
schemes of reprsssive legislation,
Russia's Asiatic intrigues, and Brit
aims Afghan war, are all suddenly
shelved The Eastern problem that
csntres.at Constantinople and at Ca
bul, is abruptly adjourned, and new
Asiatic question is presented on which
Tor once all the Powers, both great
and small, are on one side. Muscovy,
no longer vexing the soul of the I'M
speakable Turk with threats of non.
evacuation, concentrates her legions
around the plague spot in the hope of
arrest!ng its malarial march. And it
is safe TO say that the fiercest lingo
in London unites with the worst An.
glophobist of st. Petersburg in wish.
ing success to the Imperial bayonets
that are drawing q Gordon against the
advance of Boccaccic's Black Death.
In the italian Chamber the govern
ment, replying to the apprehensive
query of Deputy, said that it had
established q rigorous quarantine
against the Black Sea, and might have
to adopt even sterner measures Ger
many talks of sending $4,000 troops
to dispute with Death the passage Of
her frontier. And 40. in every CAPT
tai in Europe, erstwhile rent with
hundred contending cries, the same
common concern is exhibited in the
presence Of a common enemy II may
not be an nnwholesome thing, even if
the progress of the plague is arrested
on the farther shore of the Adria.io,
to have the nations Of the Old World
reminded thus pointedly that they
form one family, and are knit together.
spite of their ambitious and enmities,
in the bonds of brotherhood that
they cannot wholly break if they
would.
ThepEuropeaD governments are am.
ply justified in their energetic precan.
tons, by the records OF previous visi.
tations Of the plague. It's last appear.
ance in Europe was in 1874, though
in Asia, its nursery and home, il has
REQUIRED frequently, 10 various local..
ties, since that date Persia and
Arabia seem 10 be it's most thriving
seed-beds. Of its fearful fatality ey.
cry historian speaks. The great
plague of 542-5 swept from Asia
westwards, and devastated Egypt and
the north coast Of Africa, as well az
the Byzantine Empire, Italy and
France. The city Of Alexandria alone
lost 100000 of her people by that
sconrge, while the deaths in Constau.
tinople numbered 500 per day for
three months, and the total number
of victims gathered from the three
continents is set down at IOO, 200. 900. |
Again in 1889, breaking out in China,
where the historians Of the Celestial |
Empire say it swept away $4,000, 900
of its people, it again marched west
aud visited every corner of Europe.
1t was then chrlstened "The Black |
Death" and Boccaccio in his "Dec-
ameron" wildly depicts its awful |
ravages 10 Florence. Italy was half |
In London the burials |
numbered 200 daily. A shocking
feature of this pestilence was the in. |
human persecution of the Jews, to |
whose malign influence it was attrib
uted, as web as all other ills under
which Christendom then groaned.-I
Again in 1911, quarter of q million
lives were forfeited to the plague 10
Constantinople, and in 1856 q vessel
carried it to Naples, and in six months
400, 900 Of the Neapolitans had died
from 1t. Even more awful was the
visitation of Marseilles in 1920, when
the scouree was brough. by ship
from the Levant, and out Of $4,000 |
inhabitants two-thirds persisted in FIVE
short weeks. There have been many
subsequent appearances Of the dread
ed Death, the last in England being
that of 1866, with which DeFoe has
made every schoolboy familiar. Lon.
don lost nearly 10000 of its populs.
ton, and it is believed that only by
the great FIRE Of 1865 were the germs |
of the disease at last burned out. As
suredly Europe has every reason to
brace itself for a united effort to stay |
the advance of so catastrophe q visit. |
Traveller.
MIR. TENNYsoN, IL is reported, has
written new dramatic poem, cal
led Beckett" which is considered !