The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1884-12-10
Terrible State OF Affairs in the
Stricken Region.
an lndeseribable Woe EnWraps the
Afflicted Country, and a Pail OF
DesOlatiOn Everywhere.
The Agent OF the Red Cross Asso-
citation Relates More Awful
Suffering.
FAssINE, pROUra, |


Another Chapter of Authentic News From
the Southern Plague eDistrict-starvation
on Every HaDd-Yast Graveyard.
LOUISVILLE, Ky, Dec 6.-Tbe Courier
journals staff correspondent sends his paper
The result of mis- tour through the plague
stricken district in q special from Mount
Pleasant, Harlan County, Kentucky, to-
night. he says: No one who has not per
sonslly visited this country can form sny-
thing near an idea of the woe that enwraps
like winding sheet aud casts the pail of
desOlsti0n and sorrow everywhere. Almost
every house in many sections has contrib
uled its one or more victims TO the nun
6Feds who have gone to fill simple country
graYeyaIds, and the mourning is as wide
spread as the everlasting hills which have
teen devastated. l left Mount Pleasant,
Harlan Comfy, three days ago, and have
baVeled into the northern part of tat
county along Clover Fork and little streams
empty yfng into it, and then went on to Poor
Fork, along whose banks in Harlan and Let
cher Counties scores have yielded up thsir
lives 10 the awful scourge.
HORRORS ACcUNULATING.
From Poor Fork crossed the Cumberland
Noun kains into Wise and Isle Counties, VIr-
condition of horror that my heart fails
when / begin to write. Individual instances
OF the mOst beqrtrendiug nature are numer-
Gus as the mountains. and to mention them
one by one would keep me employed for
fay, At one place in Harlan County
learned of an instance where five out OF a
family of seven. the Clarks, living on Poor
FOTs, succnmbsd TO the scOurge. In another
where the only living member Of q family OF
five was habe.not vet able 70 prattls: IN
hsara ha fat hor arr1f r.t,4l "A
bad LETT 3 heIeaVed wife and mother to
me urn her SORROW alone at the cherries
hearth. and still in another where not one
Of household OF four renamed to perpetu-
ale the name. On Poor Fork, at Lesaher,
lust beyond the Harlan line, is the county
cemetery, in n which thirty-seveH neW-made
mounds Of rock and earth lightly covered
ell that vRs mortal of plague victims. Ia
one little neigh boThoOd not i've miles
square, in that section, almost whole fam
lies we're swept away like chaf before the
wind. and in many more death had taken a
majority
IN LETCHER.
Deaths IN Letcher had been far above tks
average of those in any other county save
Wise County, Virginia, in which the disease
has made wider swath than in any ] have
visited. They number, as nearly ss the best
authorities could estimate, 2)O and the num-
Der Ot cases have exceeded that fully three.
fold. 1t as not until l crossed into Vlr-
ginia that the most pitiful stories reached
my ears. Here | was told that near the lit
tie town Of EmbOden, in q grsvey ard con-
taining sixty ghTee new graves, tgsDty-nine
persons cut OF the Baker family mad died
and were occupants of that many burial ps-
ces in the rude cemetery. j was told that in
on day thirty three persons had died, aud
that there was n0T grave clothes and COfios
enough in the DeighbOrhOod 10 bury them
The physicians Who practice in the county.
but two in nuR0 Der, were totally unable tn
cope with The disease, and the dead haye
multiplied faster than they could be buried.
Their treatment of il has been of the cr01sst
soFt. from what can learn, aud as result
hes been little more than experimental, cDa-
Tossing that the plague has batfied all the
medical skill they possess. In Wise County
tie deaths exceed 400.
sRAvEs ON EVERY HILLSIDE
Every grave ysrd, almost every hillside,
contains rude heaps which mark the last
TestiDg-pisce of the dead. In this country,
ss IN Lsteher, the number of those attacked
bas been enormous IN many instances there
not being enough we'll people to care for the
sick. the exact number OF th )se who have
been Ill l could not ascertain, bat Mr.. J4cOb
Oakley. with whom 1 talked, said nearly
one half of the population had been at
tackled. In Lse County / met DR.. w. T..
Winter at the pOslotfice at Crs0 Orchard,
near The Kentucky line. He has been in
the infected section but about three weeks,
having left his practice in the southern por-
ton OF Lee To answer the pltiful cry for aid
which CAME froU the northern portion Of
The county. Since bis arrival be has treated
scores OF patients. and saved every one. He
bas the appearance of an intelligent man,
and gave il as his opinion that with proper
treatment and nursing the mortality could
have been reduced IS per cent.
''In Lee County, as in fact in ali districts
IN which have pursued my Investigations,
- l. !. L-.l
number attacked and I'D fatality; and while
fresh cases appear singly and In twOs aud
tbyees daily, they are lacking In the malig-
naEt features which marked the epidemic
before the recent rains and frosts. Ths
deaths in Lee have reached about 100 since
the Injection first made IFS appearance.
TEE CAUSE.
I'm the countries which have visited, all
sources OF information. medical aud ether
wise, agree that 10 impure water Is attribnt-
able this most terrible plague. In several
places have examined the water, and al
though IL has been 10 a great extent purified
BY rains and frost. have been able 10 detect
the braekish. bite taste so often described.
The water not only tastes bad, bat looks
bad, and that which people have been using
for drinking purposes for weeks WOnld
turn the strongest stomach and csnse
the bealthiest man to isl III. The
mineral or vegetable poison, whichever It
may be, in some instances so strongly i'm
pregDstes the streams that IL can De dIscov-
cred roth by sight and tasted, a slignt dis
tnTbsnce &C the bottom bringing up mass
of sediment OF bright yelloTish color. as
bitter nut gall. found instances where
people whose springs had given ont hsd dug
holes two and three feet deep in the ground
and uted the slimy. pest-breediDg water
which oOz.d up, the stuff being so impure
that it seems incredible that they should not
be aware OF IL. CAGE of almost criminal
foolisbuess Is related t. me. A man whose
well had gwen out hauled water q long
ditiaBcs and dumped it into the well.
stiTrinR up the filth which for years hsd
been aecumulstiDg at the bottom. OF this
water the entire family used. As cDnse.
t8o dying.