The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1884-12-08
The RemOrseless Reaper Revolving In
Glutted Graveyards
AND A LAND OF DEsoLATloN
A Reporter Visits and Journeys Through
the Plague stricken Regions Of
Kentucky and Virginia and
Givesa Sickening Story
AN EFFORT TO SOLVE AND SAVE,

LoUl svILLE. Dec. THE Courier
Journals staff correspondent has sent
his paper the result of his tour through
the plague stricken district, In special
from Mount Pleasant, Harlan county,
Kentucky. He says: "No one who has
not personally visited this country can
form any idea Of the woe that envelopes
like wInding-sheet and casts the pail
of desolation and sorrow everywhere.
Almost every house in many sections
has contributed its one or more victims
to the hundreds who have gone to iii
the simple country grave-yards, and tho
mourning is as widespread as the hills
which have been devastated. | left
Mount Pleasant three days ago, and
have travelled along Clover Fork and
the little streams emptying into IL, and
then went on to Poor Fork, along whose
banks, in Harlan and Letcher counties,
scores have yielded up their lives To the
awful scourge. From Poor Fork, 1
crossed the Cumberland mountains into
Wise and Isle counties, Virginia, en-
countering in the former such a condi-
ton of horror that my heart fails whom
! begin to write. AT one place in Har-
Ian county learned Of an in
stane where five Jt of fam.
lily of seven, the Clarks, liy-
ing on Poor Fork, succumbed
to the scourge; in another, where the
only living member OF family of five
was q babe not yet able TO prattle; in
another, where the father and three
| children had left a bereayed wife and
mother to mourn her sorrow alone, and
still in another whore not one of a
househould of four remained to porpetu-
ate the name. At Letcher, the county
cemetery has has thirty-seyen new
made mounds. In one neighborhood,
not five miles square, In that section, al
most whole fa"ilies were swept
away, and In many more
death had taken majority,
| The deaths in Letcher had been far
above the average OF those in any other
county, save Wise county, Virginia, In
which the disease bad made q wider
swath than in aly have visited. They
number, as peariy az the best authori-
ties could VAmste, 900, and the number
OF eases rive exceeded that fully three
NJ u was not unit, ] crossed into
wv that the most ipitiful stories
reached my ears. Here, was told, near
"
yard containing sixty threo new
graves, twenty nine out of the
Baker family had died.
was told that In one
day thirty-throe poreOns had died; that
there was not grave clothes and collins
enough in tho neighborhood to bury
them. The physicians who practice in
the county were totally unable TO cope
with the disease, and the dead have null
| tiplied faster than they could be buried.
| In Wise county the deaths exceed 400.
In this county, as In Lotcher, the mum
her of those attacked has been onor.
nous, in many instances there not being
enough well people to caro- for the sick.
In Lee county met Dr. w. q. WintOr.
lie has been in the infected section but
about three weeks, but since his arrival
he has treated scores uf patients ard
saved every one. In Lee county. as I'm
| fact in all the districts in which have
pursued my investigations, thu disease
is now decreasing, 10Th in the number
attacked and Ia us fatality. Aud while
lresh eases appear, singly and IN twos
aud throeS daily, they are lacking in
the malignant features which marked
the epidemic before the recent rains aud
frost.
RsTINATE OF VICTIMS.
Having travelled through many
counties and made every effort
to secure tho most relia
ble information, think the
following estimate Of the number death.
NJ correct as any can be secured; Ger.
tainly nearer tho truth than any figure,
given from outside sources:
Whitley county. q
He'll county ...... .......
| TetCher county .. -
Lee county Virginia. ,...... ...,.. lV
| KNOX county. ,,..s. ..... ...... q
Harlem county .... III
Wlsc county, Nlrglnia, ......... ~
Total. on
This estimate does not include Buch.
anan county, Virginia, In which Ia,
mortality Is placed Mt over l7j.
Scott county, Nlrgnla..,. .. "
Dickinson county, Nlrglnln. ..... ..... Is
PHI county, Kentucky ,.. ..t.. ~
Floyd county, Kentucky ............. .
Leslie county, Kentucky ...,...
Knott county .,.......... ...........
Scott, He'll, Mcnlfee and VOL counties,
Kentucky .... .....,,.... .......... ~
This brings tho grand total up 90 2,0iJ
. startling iigurt sruly.
A DocTuR's TuEoRy,
After leaving Virginia met DIR, J. q
Carsen, Of Bowling Groen, kentucky
who had been sent out by the sta,
board of health to Investigate the dis
ease aud It's causes. lie Informed NJ
he had visited sovernl houses wher
, there were people sick and he ha
formed the opinion that the malady wa
not contagious. lie attributed the sicb
, ness 10 malaria MS well ny TO lmpur
, water, aud was not an;islied rs {
} whether vegetable or mineral poiso
had onused thl latter to become $
baneful. Dr. Crrson procured via
of wator from several streams o
which the plague has ragged, and his r,
searches viii doubtless result IN the dii
covery oftho roal cause of the 0pidomi
and OF u cure, should II roour,
on TUE ~ CREASE,
pETERsRCRa, Dec. T.. Information n,
been received through j. B, Hilton.
merchant of Wiao couuty, that Il
plague in that section OF tho state is no
ON the decrease. lie says between .
and 300 persons died, hanging IN ~
from to years.
| -