Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1884-09-24
A Plague OF the Past.

Z
/ ially those of the middle ages, were so
virulent and destructive that anything
we have had or conld have in this CEN
| tury would be insigni hcant. Inc
plague, or black death. as 1t was COM
monty called, of the fourteenth .centu-
ry, was the most terrible scoutage OF
which any record has been preserved.
To read of it now seems like some hor-
rible dream, or some monkish VISION
of the internal world. 1t appals the
imagination and shows what fearful "a
wages disease could make before man
had become acquainted with hygienic
| laws.
The black death, which was an EaS-
tern plague, and actually desolated the
world, got its name from the black
spots caused by decomposition that ap-
peared on the body of the sufferer. No
statistics or health records were kept In
the dark ages, therapeutics was in Its
infancy; ignorance and indifference
universally prevailed. We have very
few data of the plague; we are unac-
quainted with its symptoms, its crises
or the method of its infection. They
must have varied greatly at different
times and in different places. The cases
were more malignant and more widely
fatal in Asia than in Europe, owing TO
the worse condition of the people and
| the lower forms OF civilization. Every
thing connected with the pest was hid
eOus and revelting. Those attacked by
il suffered terribly. They had burning
and unquenchable thirst, racklng pains
in the head and 'Ieast, palsled tongue,
boils and swellings all over the body.
putrld Inflammation of the lungs; they
were a mass of corruption and agony;
they often begged to be killed to be re-
lleved of their misery, and when they
had sufficient strength destroyed them
selves. The great majority perished IN
two or three days; medicines were pow
erleSs, the appearance of the black spots
was the sign of doom. Nature, cruel
as she is, was never more cruel than at
that frlghtful period.
While much that has been published
concerning the plague is vague and OBJ
ylously fabulous, there is no rational
doubt that 1t had its rise In China dur
ing the first part of the fourteenth cen
tury, and that it was preceded by
swarms of lOcusts, droughts, famines,
floods, tOrnadOes, earthquakes and vol
| canlc eruptiOns throughout the East,
which destroyed vegetable and animal
life far and near. Similar derange-
| mentS and convulsIons of nature were
common in Europe. All this upheaval
and disorder, with the attendant de
composition of matter and animal sub
stance, is supposed TO have caused some
extraordinary atmospheric change hos
tile to human life, which acted like poi
son upon the respiratory Orgals-al-
ways the first to be attacked. Some
writer's of the time say that the steady
| progress of the epidemic from East to
West could be traced by the vitiated
air, which resembles cloud or haze
the cloud of fate, the haze of death.
Scarcity of food and unwholesOme
living predisp0Sed people TO the disease
which constantly spread from infection
and contagion. 1t made its way from
China along the caravan routes west
ward. From the north coast of the
| Black Sea it went TO CODstantinOple,
| thence to the Italian seapOrts and
throughout Europe, occupying three
years IN passing, by a mig lty circle,
from ConstantInople to Russia.
The ravageS of the plague were
/ frightful beyond conception. Death
Stalked through the world. moving
down his victims everywhere Every
/ form of animal life was aSSaIled. ThOuS-
| andS of corpses were east into huge pits,
| dug for the purpose; lakes and rivers
were cOnsecrated, that the dead might
be thrown into them, thus avoiding the
dread and danger of infection. Pas
Sengers and crews were stricken down
at sea; often nobody was lett alive on
vessels, which, loaded with putrefylng
humanity, were borne aimlesSly 10y the
infected winds and finally driven TO
shore, where they spread the contaglon
over the land. The moral effects of the
ScOurge were as bad as the physical ef-
fectS. Thousands died from terror; the
ties of humanity and kinlred were
bTLken; husbands deserted their wives,
brothers their sisters, mothers their
children; everybody WAS absorbed by a
wild desire to save himself at all haZ-
ards and at any price; and yet saliva
ton was in most cases impossible, al
most hopeless. 1t seemed as if the
whole race was doomed to destruction;
as if despair had seized and shattered
the human heart.
Superstition, offspring of weakness
and fear, also reared its horrid crest.
| Those who thought themselves reli-
giOus carried their gold and jewels to
the churches from eagerneSS to appeaSe
what they imagined to be the wrath of
an angry deity. But the priests dread
ed to touch such offerings lest they
should be tainted. An order named
the FlagellantS, composed of the
lower classes, arose in Germany, and
marcfed fIom city to city in sOmbre
garments, with red crosses on their
breasts, solemnly chan ting and bear
ing irOn-pointed scourges, with which
at intervals they lacerated their flesh.
As they marched they gathered men
and women of the highest rank, who
were mad enough to think they might
eXpiate the sins of the world by their
Self-impOsed torments. They wander
ed to nearly every part of Europe, scat
terlng confusion, dismay and plague,
and became an intolerable nuisance.
The Pope was finally compelled 10 sup
press them, so far rs their pilgrimages
were concerned, by threats of excOm-
munication. At the same time the un-
fortunate Jews, UNANIMOUSLY treated in
the Middle Ages, were prosecuted
atIesh, from a vulgar belief that they
had caused the peSti!ence by poisoning
the wells. The sO-called Christians
tried to extirpate that ill-starred people.
who were tortured and SLAIN whenever
found, as many as 1900 having been
slain in Hamburg alone. Many of the
Jews committed suicide to escape the |
torments they knew to be in store for
them, and in many communities they |
were, every soul of them, destroyed.