Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1888-10-20
PLAGUE-BOUND.
The Blight of Death Amid the
Beauty of Indian Summer.

Reading of the ravages of yellow
foyer at Jacksonville, Fla, brings tc
my mind an outbreak of smallpox fan
out on a newly-settled portion of the
: prairie In Dakota a few years ago
The situation was so isolated at the
time that it was but little heard of BY
the world, but while it lasted the little
community was at its mercy, and
many a hardy settler found a lonely
and perhaps unmarked grave beneath
the dry. gray surface of the rolling,
endless plain.
1t was in the early part of October,
1882, that the fatal disease made its
appearance a few miles from Estelline,
Hamlin County, then a new and stray
Cling village far removed from anv
other towns. A lonesome and uncer-
tain line OF railroad ran through the
the place, along which crept a freight
train every other day, with an ancient
passenger coach attached to the rear
end. In the circulars of the company
this train was referred to as a "fast
and well-appointed express, making
close connections East and West" and
1t is more than probable that the train
would have made much closer con-
nections in all directions if the track
had not been so "sideling" in many
places that occasionally 4 top-heavy
car would tip over and roll on its back
on the prairie in a perfectly helpless
condition. There was no other COM
m%unication with the outside world OK.
cept by teams across the country, and
ms was not much resorted to. Estel-
line was an island in the silent, lonely,
rolling prairie.
How the smallpox came no one ever
knew. 1t did not break ont in town.
but made its appearance in half a
dozen different places in the surround
ing country, from five to ten miles
distant, almost ut the same time. The
settlements in the country were scat
tering. The nearest neighbors some
families had were three or four miles
away. The greatest part of the land
was unbroken prairie.
1t was but a few days when the cases
were reported on all sides. None had
yet appeared in town, and the authori-
Ties decided on a rigid quarantine to
Keep it out. Accordingly, men were
stationed "A half mile out on all roads
to stop people coming in, and if they
wished any thing from town, to get it
and take it out to them. Other towns
on the line of the railroad learned of
the outbreak, and %quarantined them
selves against us as we had quarantined
ourselves against the country. The
mails ceased to come and go. The last
and well-appointed express train was
ordered to rush through Estelline with.
Out stopping, which it did with a great
amount of putting by the locomotive
and rolling out Of black smoke on the
still. hazy, Indian summer air. One
day, in the very heart of the city, II
ran over and killed a very promising
year-old pig, belonging to Sam Cole
grove, though in justice to the pig /
ought to state that it was going in the
opposite direction to the train at the
time. Our only telegraph operator
went twenty miles into the country to
nurse a brother sick of the disease. in
a little square box of q house on his
homestead, up on the Strayhorse creek.
Our little island was cut off from the
OF the world. Many went out
from the town to help nurse the i'll, or
bury the dead. Our only physician
was out working night and day.
The soft, smoky October days slipped
away, and the dread disease ragged on
sides. There Yer a great numbero of
foreigners among the settlers-many
Norwegians, some from Finland.
others from Russia, a few even from.
lceland-and vaccination was not CON-.
mon among them. 1t was two weeks
before any vaccine points could be OBJ
iained, and then a man brought them
overland on horseback. The mellow
indian summer weather. with its lazy
sky and with just a ghost Of a soft
south wind-only enough to make the
great yellow ranks Of wild sunnowers
nod their heads lazily-brought no
hints Of any thing but health. The
Of the town were deserted;
almost as still as the prairie without.
There the grass was dry and chung
70 the ground. more gray than
brown. and the stiffness was dpprcs- |
live. Yo mounted 70 the top Of one
the prairie waves. and the miles
could see of across the billowy,
sea Of dry and withered grass
showed you nothing except two or {
little board or sod houses, over
which. perhaps. death was towering ,