The New York herald., 1879-02-14

sspbyxa have occurred among the workmen.
Men have actually fallen dead in the graves
they were digging, recorded during the
London plague. Walking back from the eeme-
terry to the city l counted fifty-two bodies going
to burial. This broad sand beach in front OF For
taleza is a main road to the burial ground. From
morning till night a stream of corpses is passing
along here. went to the beach without seeing
four or Ave. While took my morning bath in the
surf a score would pass me- There are two or three
smallpox hospitals; but of course they were over
flowing during the epidemic. The one visited was
close by the cemetery. Every cot was ful and as
fast vacated it was taken up by new
patient. In many they did not even wash the
cot and believed that many deaths were caused in
this way, as when patient only slightly attacked
was placed OH a cot where had recently died Of
some aggravated form of the disease.
wRETcHEp
The flies were swarming about here by miilions.
think these insects had much TO do with the propa
cation Of smallpox, passing as they do from house
to house and lighting on face and hands. You must
not suppose that all the smallpox patients gath
cred in these hospitals. visited many of the refu-
gee huts, and in almost every found the dread
disease. Some cases saw were horrible enough.
stopped at one hut, two three miles out of town
and away from the main roads. 1t was the merest
shelter made of boughs and palm leaves; no floor
of course, and furniture beyond dirty ham,
mock mat and two three cooking utensils of
clav. woman to whom spoke looked up drowsiy
She suffering from fever. plainly the fever of
smallpox. A baby in the hammock tossing
with the fever also. A little girl on the
mat had the white just breaking out
her face. boy the ground horrible
of rotting flesh. with the blood oozng from all
parts of the body. He could not have lived hour
longer. And yet there one to give cup of
water to this sick family. 1t was so in many cases.
People died Of hunger and thirst because disease left
them helpless and there one to aid them The
refugees seemed indifferent to their fate. They
laughed to some distorted body. They
gambled for their rations. often them at this
sport The only sign of fear observed was i'll the
repugnance which the men showed for hospital and
cemetery service. 1t very difficult especially to
find gravedggers. The dead collected every
morning by corps of searchers. A fixed was
paid, believe. for each body
DISEASE DEroPULArING THE VILLAGES
If affairs were bad in Fortaleza they worse in
some of the villages around it. From it's centre in
the capital the epidemic spread in all directions.
At Pacatuba, with population refugees included)
Of $500, the death rate went high 100 per day
three and one-half per cent of the whole. In this
place visited twenty houses at random, and in
every one found from one to five smallpox cases.
scaos still their faces Children. lightly attacked
crawling about the streets begging at the
railroad station !! One man had twenty -four work
Seventeen Of these died in forty-fve days. and
another sick when left. Another had nine
clerks. Six OF them died within four weeks. Fam
lilies of ten died one after another until
left. Cases were common where only two three
remained out of large circle. And this, you must
remember. was among the richer class well
as among the poorer, though, doubt
the mortality greater with the refugees.
Along the railroad line the mortality among tho
workmen often very great; but the engineer,
Mr.. Messing, had introduced a semi military system.
The people lived in decent houses and the sick were
risidly separated from the well.
WHAT VACCINATION MIGHT HAVE DONE.
believe that the epidemic itself might have been
prevented by vaccination and the commonest hy-
yienif rules. What can be done was at Baturite,
beautiful; village about seventyive miles from
Fortaleza. There 1000 refugees there.
They lived i'll decent barracks, had food enough and
to spare and clothed by the government. The
labor system had been in all along. vaccina-
ton enforced and smallpox had hardly been
felt there up to January. 1879. Out of the
$4,000. during my visit. the mortality ran no
higher than five per day-a very low rate when
it is considered that people still coming in
starving state. The good condition of affairs at
Baturite is almost entirely owing TO noble man.
DR.. Antonio Comes Pereira This gentleman, of
she wealthcst il the province devoted himself from
The hrst to succorins the poor people. When the
great exodus took plac, he fed thousands at his
expense. As government commissioner he intro
duced order and economy into the work. He vac
cinated 150O people with his hand and enforced
the measure with all. He is honored by his
neighbors. worshipped by the refugees and he de-
serves to be known AS man who has saved 10000
lives.
APPEARANCE OF THE BLACK
could write much more of Casra and the good
and EVIL saw there; the evil alas too sadly prcdom-
inant! Only thing more will note. for it may
be the sign of another scourge in the future. When
left Fortaleza people talking of disease
which they called black smallpox. 1t utterly
unlike the ordinary smallpox. The patient was
seized with sudden giddness, fever and burning OF
the tongue; then dark spots like bruises appeared
the body, and in twenty-four hours all over.
surmised from the first, and believe there is now
doubt. that this is the terrible black
plague, the scourgc that has so often
swept through Europe and Asia, but which
far / know, has appeared before
this side of the Atlantic. The already
numerous at the beginning OF this year. One OF the
FIRST victims the wife of the Provincial President
senior Jose Julio. She died in few hours after
the disease attacked her. She buried at night
without attendance. What will be the result OF this
new pcsiilcnce? ! only know what has bcen-a
province utterly ruined; population of 100000 re-
duced to 100000. and these dying at an enormous
rate. Probably there have been 100000 deaths in tho
other droug-stricken provinces OF which have few
notices. There is nothing in history that will COM
pare with it. God grant that there never may be
agani
TENNESSEE'S DEBT.