The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1879-03-12

had been declared. In well-nigh all instance
death ensued in two or three days after |
attack. Spots and tumors were the seals of
doom which medical skill had no power to
avert and many sufferers anticipated by sui
eide.
The rise and progress of the plague in the |
century have not been clearly or
related; but there seems TO be |
no doubt that it originated in China. There |
is also concurrent testimony that the coop |
Grating causes existed and acted at least Is |
years before any outbreak n Europe, and |
are to be sought as far back as 1888. in a Sc
ries of mighty commissions of nature, which |
continued for 26 years to atfiict and derange |
the normal condition of animal and vegeta
BILE life. The precise date OF the beginning
of the plague in China is unknown; but
from 1888 to 1349 that country suffered fear
fully from droughts, famine, floods, swerms
of locusts and earthquakes that overthrow
cities and Ieveled mountains, and these
catastrophes were followed by the scourge.
at the same time the order of things seemed
to be reversed IN Europe. Thunder storms
occurred in mid winter, ice formed in sum-
mer, tornadoes swept regions that had never
felt them before. volcanoes, long thought
extinct, blazed with fury, and water-spouts
rose in placid seas.
The mortality was hideous in the East and
West, and it is believed that the great
activity of the globe. accompanied by de-
com position of vast organic masses, myr1ad5
of locusts, bodies of brutes and men, pro.
duced some change IN the atmosphere hos
tile to life. 1t is ssid that, in the progress OF
the plague Westward, the impure and pol
soned air was traceable as it moved on laden
with pestllepce and death. A writer of the
time remarks: "a dense, awful fog was
seen in the Heavens rising in the East, and
descending upon Italy" The inhabitants
of Europe are also thought to have been pre-
disposed to the pest partly from scarcity,
and partly from the then inadequate modes
of living. The theory is very plausible that
it sprapg directly from atmospheric poison,
acting on the respiratory organs. which were
the first to be attacked. Still, where impure
sir and defective physical conditions may
have fed the pestiience largely, it doubtless
owed its extension almost entirely to in
fiction and contagion. It seems that it
had appeared in Europe in milder
form IN 1872; but it had
come to an end, and there is little reason to
hold, as has been held, that it had in the in
terval remained latent until new causes had
requickened it SIX years later. The inyas-
ION OF 134S may be distinctly tracked in its
advances from China along the caravan
routes toward the West. The northern coast
of the Black sea sent the plague by contag-
ion to Constantinople; thence in the same
way it reached the ports of Italy, and was SO
diffused throughout Europe. Its progress
may be followed through Germany and
France to England, whence it was trans
Iultltu W OHcGGu 1uIcc years 6ldpStd
from its appearance in Constantinople until
it crept by great circle to the Russian ter
ritories; and the fact of its contagious COM
munication has started the speculation
whether, by rigid quarantine it might not
have been excluded altogether from Europe.
Such rules have now long been enforced at
many points to prevent introduction into
the West of the plaques of the Orient, but
they have been insufficient in the present
instance to keep it out of Russia.
APPALLING HORRORS.
The mortality, though no proper estimate
can be made in the absence of statistics, was
prodigious-supremely terrifying. In China
alone ID 900. 900 persons are asserted to have
died, and in other parts of the East nearly
"a 600 900 more. In Europe details were
more exact. In London 100000 souls per-
ished, and in Is continental cities about 300,-
/ 600. Germany lost, it is calculated, PA :
| 43i, and Italy one-half of her whole popula-
| ton. It is within bounds to say that in al
| Europe not less than %, 600 600 people we're
/ slain by the Scourge. Africa suffered terribly
| likewise, and it is believed that the globe
was deprived during that century of fully
| from 20, 900, 600 to 49, 900 600 human bsings
from ravages of the plague. The mere facts
are appalling to the imagination; the scenes
/ of suffering are scarcely credible. Death was
| everywhere; it seemed TO have usurped the
place af life. All animal life was menaced
/ birds, beasts, men, women and children,
hosts of members of every nationality, say
| ages, peasants, scholars, priests, princes,
| kings of every creed, cline and race, were
swept from the face of the earth. Rivers
were consecrated 10 receive corpses for which
none dared 10 perform the rites OF burial (;
bodies were cast by thousands into hue pits
| dug for the purpose. Death stalked over sea
Us we'll as over land. The entire crews of
vessels were killed by the poison breath that
/ infested the globe. Ships freighted with pu-
| trefying bodies drIfted aimlessly and hid
eously on the Mediterranean, Black and
/ North seas-not q human creature alive
anywhere-and spread contsgion on the
shores whittier the winds or tides had driven
| them. Hope, peace, content, law, order. at
! fiction, naturalness, humanity, seemed
never to have been. Ancient custom and
the need of companionship were for the
time obliterated; all was death, agony and
despair and by these the infected world ap
peared to be exclusively and shudderingly
possessed
The moral effects of the plague were not
less dreadful than its physical destruction.
Thousands persisted from fear, which dis
solved among the living all ties of kindred,
all bonds of fellowship, all links of sympa.
thy. Children fled from their polluted pa
rents; mothers deserted their helpless in
fants; husbands and lovers left their wives
and mistresses to die bowling and alone.
Terror generated superstition the virtuous
and the vicious alike made distracting and
DISTRACTED Appeals 10 Oo0, VINO, tney 1mag
ined, had sent the pestllence to punish them
for manifold sins. Crowds rushed to sacri
flee their worldly goods to the church; ia
naticism swelled on every hand; womeI
screamed to Heaven for mercy; men tore
out their hair and scourged themselves
until they had tainted from loss of blood
that they might propitiate Deity whom
they actually believed they had enraged
The world was mad with fright, suffering
and superstition. and thousands who hat
tried to stay the pestilence with prayer, de
clared that God was dead and hell had begun
on earth.
The horrors of the time were furthe
heightened by cruel prosecutions against tn,
Jews. who had been accused of poisoning
the public wells, this being in popular be
lief the cause of the pestilence. The peopl
rose in mad fury to exterminate the unfor
by tens of thousands. In the inconsiderabl
|: ! city of Mantz Llxarr,aaraxA slora Is a