Connecticut western news., 1879-02-12
THE RAyAGEs OF THE PLAGUE.
WHAT MANKIND SUFFERED IN THE 14TH CENTURY-THE PLANETARY MOVEMENTS OF 1881 I

If we glance at tue history of the frightful devastations that have marked the visits of the plague to the earth, mankind has reason to tremble before the dread spectre whose appearance the Russians evoked on their pleasure trip to Constantinople, and which now threathens all Europe. Plague epl- denies are recorded of almost every cen tury. In the first year of the Pelopon- nesian war the plague ragged with terri ble violence in Athens, and Greece's greatest statesman at that time, Pericles was one of it's victims.
 But not until the fourteenth centurydid it become a scourge to the entire world, travelling, as it did then, from the east ern boundaries of Aisa through China, Inoia and Russia, and punishing with equal severity the inhabitants of the pyrenean peninsula and the hardened people of Scandinavia and Iceland. And if the western hemisphere had been dis covered at that time, ana active com
 
 there can be no doubt that the grim de- stroyer would have visited America also. It is, indeed, by no means certain but that the plague did reach this con- tinent, since there are Indian legends which speak of time of great mortality long before the advent of Europeans.
 It is estimated that not less than 52,- 900, 900 persons fell victims to the black death in Asia and Europe toward the middle of the fourteenth century. Of I these, 15, GOO, 900 are supposed to have perished in Europe, 24, GOO, 900 in Asia Minor, India and the adjacent countries, and 13. 900, ,OOO in China. One historian writes concerning the appearance of the plague in Europe Terrible omens in the heavens overwhelmed the nations with dread. In 1887, large comet ap- peared; in following years came i'm. mense multitudes of locusts but in 134e the end of the world seemed at hand. An earthquake devastated Cyprus, Greece Italy and the Alpine valleys Mountains caYed in. In the province o1 Carnthen, in Austria, thirty villages and town were utterly destroyed. The at mosphere became thick, fetid and con fusing. Wine became turbid in the barrels. Fiery meteors illuminated tho sky. A pillar of flame was seen ove1 the Papal palace at Avignon. Thes' terrors were followed by murderou plague. It originated in China, was car ried through the whole of Aisa, and il Germany received the name of the ''blacl death," because it covered it's victim suddenly with black pustules, and ofte1 killed them instantaneously. It sprea' over the whole of Europe, and it is sai' that 1t did not rage most virulently il Germany. Nevertheless IA ,0O0 person died in Basic, 16,OOO in Strasburg am the same number in Erfurt, and the perished in all other places in simila proportions. In Osnabruck only seve families are said to have survived.
 For twenty-five years the awful epi demic maintained it's annihilating sway while at the same time droughts, fam ines floods, and earthquakes destoye city and country, and vast swarms c locusts everywhere inflicted the aires ravages. Meantime the whole order c the nation seemed reversed. In mid winter the severest rains were experi enced, and in summer long continued az severe frosts, and volcanoes that ha been long thought extinct opened thei craters anew. Some have attributed tn origin of the epidemic to the atmospheri ic changes produced by the convulsion of the earth, combined with the decay c organic matter-the myriads of locust and the unnumbered bodies of men an, animals.
 Some have also attributed that fright full epidemic to the then recorded az proach of several planets to the sun Inasmuch as four planets enter the per ihelion in 1881, we have at least this simi larity between the present time and tha dreadful period; and this circumstance combined with the sudden outbreak C the plague that is reported from Europe may give rise to the fears that the con ing planetary proximity to the sun perhaps to have an evil import for poe humanity.