San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1879-03-01
BL1CK DEATH.
The Terrible Plague IN RWssia.
From the Chicago 1imes.I

.Ht
s;on more trouble than the Turkish war,
- the INSTRUMENTATION of the, students
IN the universities. For several days
nost the cable has brought reports of
rsvapes of the plague in the district of
Istrakhan, which lies to the north of
,be Caspian sea. One dispatch states
that the people died like flies" In
ter reports represent that the terrible
seourge is spreading. and that full ten per
cent of the people in the newly-infect.
al districts have died. In some places
tbe dead lie unburied in the streets be-
.ouse no person dares touch them. The
disease was at first mistaken for typhus,
Init is now recognized as the real ORR
entail plague, Or" black DEATH" which,
in early times, carried destruction to al
most every country in Europe. The
Infected districts are now surrounded
by troops; communication with Mos
COW is stopped, and physicians and'nur-
SEES have been sent to the. stricken re-
gons. ,.....
The most CHASTITY pages of history are
those which contain accounts of the raw
ages of the plague in Europe during the
fourteenth and seventeenth centuries.
In the year l34S the plague broke out
in Russia not far from where it now ex-
lists. II was carried to Constantinople,
whence it spread all over Turkey.
From Turkey it extended into Italy,
and thence to France, Germany, the
Low Countries and England. From
England it was conveyed to Sweden,
whence it passed over the Baltic sea to
Russia. It made the circuit of Europe,
from Southern to Northern Russia, in
three years. 1t is stated that London
lost 100000 inhabitants during this visit
Of the plague, while fifteen cities on
the continent lost 100000. In Italy
half the population were swept away,
and it was estimated that 25,O00,0O0
people in Europe persisted by the
scourge. The origin of the disease was
traced to China, where the chronicles of
the empire state that more than ID ,000,-
900 died from its effects. All accounts
of this terrible visitation of death are
colored by the superstitions prevalent
at the time. Many attribute it to the
Jews, who were accused of poisoning
the wells so that the water bred pesti-
lence. In some places all the Jews
were most cruelty massacred. Many of
these unfortunate persons, seeing the
fate to which they were doomed, took
their own lives. Companies of relig-
lous zealots, known as fagellants, y
went from one place to another, tort,lr-
ing their bodies, thinking in that way
to expiate the sins of the people. Some
times these companies numbered thou
sands, and they did much to help
spread the fatal disease. The men and
women who composed them went about
nearly naked, but all wore a red cross
on the breast. Many people gave all
their treasures to the church, the monks
shutting the gates of their Enclosures SO
as not to come in contact with the Civ
ers, who threw their coins and jewels
over the walls.
All the rivers and streams were pol
luted, as if they were the ordinary sepul-
chres of the dead. Many sought refuge
rom the disease in caves and woods re-
mote from settlements, and persisted
nom hunger. Others embarked on the
sea in boats. These persons dying with
the scourge, the vessels were picked up
BY sailors, who themselves became vic
inns of the same fate that had carried
on the former occupants. Vessels left
/" their own guidance we're blown on
The shores of remote countries, and in 4
week the terrible disease would COM
mence spreading among a new people.
futr1d corpses were carried down the
nVers, often accumulating in large
masses and giving off horrible stencil
mat infected the air for miles. Many
persons were delirious when first at
@eEed, and ran from one house to an
other, tearing out the hair and scratch
ing the faces of all they met. Fear
move people from villages that were
Nncken to those that were healthy, and