Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1884-12-08
PLAGUE HORRORS.
DEATH sIrs ON xvEnr rsREsuoLp.

Il
ofisfnsung Ia the Use OF Oopsamiu mated
wster-t, 500 Deaths in = l-opuIa,iou
OF Less Than $4,000.
"A private letter from Erwin gton, Dickin.
son county. Va, thus tells OF some of the
horrors and distress resulting from the
recent plague In that region:
Efvington has population of 100 and
Is In the healthiest part of the county. vet.
with all our advantages over the rnr.i iis,
tricts. We have had since August lat. FORTY
one deaths. 1t Is true that fully fifty pcr
cent OF these were country cousins who
come TO town for relief but found death
but that does not lesson tho frightfuluess
OF this mortality rate. At first there were
many mourners, but now the dead are 40
many and the sick 20 numorous
snat funerals are scarcely attended
py any save those who must 90.
IN TINS county We have not suffered
ior 1000 as In adjoining counties, but it is
yet ahead Of MS. Our stock is nearly All
dead, and the little that our orops might
nave yielded was ungarnercd because of
lack Of strength.
| Yesterday walked eight miles into
tne country, calling upon some forty
families, but not one did I find In which
| there had not been from one to seven
deaths. Ia one family only the aged
| grandparent remained. For days no one
mas visited the place until to-day, when a
man arrived from Cranetown. a postoffice
lIss across the border in Wise county.
lie says the distress in this oountv is
| almost beyond belief From this point to
| Cranetown is thirty one miles. and in that
| distance nine dead persons were discovered
( oy inguiring at houses along the way,
| together with over forty siok, Many
families in the mo untains have lost their
oxen. As horses are scarce, they are pre-
vented from going the long distances
to mills, and are living on parohed corn.
pounded to coarse meal. Almost the
only food In the whole neighborhood Is
corn and beans. Butter has not been seen
ior weeks. Milk is not to be had and would
oe unnt Tor use II It could be got. There
are not ten bushels of potatoes in the
county. The domestic fowls are ali dead.
or tainted with chicken cholera, and the
hogs died long ago. We look forward with
despair"
The letter bears date of November 25.
Advices which have been received since.
say that good rains have fallen, which viii
NIL the streams and remove the came of
disease, but food Is lacking and aid il
needed.
HORRORS OF THE SOUTHERN PLAGUE,
from the Louisville Courier journal.
AT the head Of Glover Park in Harlan
county lived family by the name of CLARK.
The husband and father Ia now serying
out sentence at Frankfort for murder. I
believe. Tho disease attacked the wife
and four children, and In q few days they
were all dead. In Wise county, Virginia, /
was told that those burying, the dead were
two days behind their work.
Il
| rEARTUL MORTALITY RATE,
Pike, Letcher, Harlan and Bell are the
four counties in the extreme southeastern
part OF Kentucky which border on the
state OF Virginia. The border counties In
virginia are Buchanan, Dickenson, Wise
and Lee. These eight counties form the
district in which the plague has ragged for
very nearly Two months, carrying off more
people in proportion to the number of in
habitants than the cholera in its worst
stages IN France during the past year.
| In Bell county and the eastern town.
SHIPS OF Knox 211 deaths have been 40
| far reported. In Harlan county 200
people have died. In Wise county, Vir.
GINA, the mortality has been more fright. |
ful still. The Gaysville Times has reported
ioo deaths, including the entire Clark
| family of tive who lived ut the root OF
] Garrison's Gap. In addition to this, Al
/ -
Camp creek, including an entire family of
four. Along Guests River creek 25 more
have died. Blk people were buried in one
| graveyard there In one day.
The suffering In some neighborhoods |
and in some families has been much
greater than in others. At Poor Fork
postofhce there arc 25 new graves.
although the population is less than 100. |
Along Moccasin creek there were 80
families, numbering in all 1870 people, and |
OF these but 81 are left. In the Moocasin
valley the horrors of starvation were /
added to those of the plague. There was
although there was corn enough on hand, |
no one could taSs it to mill. There was
no one able to cook it II it had been
ground, and there was no water fit to cook
the meal if it had been obtained.
Gladesville and Lebanon, two Ken.
tuoky villages, arc almost depopulated.
AT Gladesville there lived a Methodst
circuit rider, the Rev. Joseph Emmons,
VINO received $3.50 for his years salary,
the most OF it coming from q missionary
society. He had wife and three children
to support on this. When the plague
broke out in the village he devoted his
whoie time to the care of the sick. He
was at once physician and nurse, and when
the disease had run itsfatal course he gave
the dying the consolation of his faith.
Almost without help, for the people in their
terror gave up all hope and sat down
to die, he made rough collins and dug
shallow graves to bury the dead. When
at last his wife and two of his children
became victims there was no one to lend
him helping hand. In one day they were
all dead, and on the next day he kuelt
alone beside the one grave which he had
dug with his own hand. More than one
half OF the people Of the village have died.
and the rest would gladly leave it IL they
had the means, or know where to 90 to
escape the plague.
Out OF apopulation Of $4,000 people In
the stricken section, more than 200
deaths have been reported, and well
Informed people like DR.. Bair of Mount
Pleasant village and the Rev. w, III,
Childers, tho presiding elder of the
Barboursville district OF the Nethodist
church, say that at leass 800 people have
died from its effects, the most OF whom
were children.
CAUSES OF THR PLAGUE.
The region In which the disease broke !,
out is the high ground where rise the
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