The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-10-10
THE EPIDEMIC OF 1893.
"REMINISCENCES OF THE PLAGUE
AT PHILADELPHIA.
The Devastation That Once Fell Upon
Our City-How the Sick Were Cared
for and the Dead Buried.
From The PhiLadeIphip Times.

| inc devastation That once Fell Upon
Our City-How the Sick Were Cared
for and the Dead Buried.
From, the PHILADELPHIA Times.
! The yellow fever epidemic in Florida is a
subject that is at present uppermost in the
| public mind. AS the scourge seems spread
ing it is but natural that thoughtful people
should consider the possibility of its attack
! ing their own home and draw mental pict-
ures as to what the consequences of the
visitation would likely be. The past will
show us what this was once in Philadelphia.
I In 1888 the yellow fever ragged in this city
with unexampled fury, and, according to
one who has described it, the trials of forti-
tude and constancy which took place in the
autumn OF 1893 have, perhaps, never been
exceeded in any age. Just as Defoe de-
scribed the great plague Of London, SO has
| the Philadelphia plague been written by
one who has been called the first American
novelist, Charles Brockden Brown. Brown
| was born in Philadelphia in 177l and died
in 1910. In 1898 he published his first work,
entitled "Wieland," introducing fiction for
the first time into American literature
| Next year $3.50 saw the production OF his
| Arthur Meryn; or, Memoirs of the Year
| 1888" which gained him an International
reputation at a time when English critics
were slow to indOrse anything purely
| Anne lean.
| Is is not the purpose of this sketch to deal
| with Arthur Meryn" in relation to its plot,
| which is impossible, nor to discuss its
| language, which is f1r the most part stilted
| and commonplace. As a record of the
pestiience that fell upon our city in that
| memorable year its chief value consists.
| Brown, or "Arthur Meryn," as the book
! names him, was in his country place, some
| distance from the city, when the disease
broke out in Philadelphia. my thoughts"
| says he, ''were called away by u rum0r. which
| had gradually swelled to formidable dimen-
| sions, and which at length reached us in
our quiet retreats. The city. we are told,
was involved in confusion and panic, for
| pestilential disease had begun its destructive
| progress. Magistrates and citizens were
! flying to the country. The numbers of the
sick multiplied beyond all example, even in
the pest-afficted cities of the Levant The
malady was malignant and unsparing.
| The usual occupations and amusements
of life were at an end Ter
ror had exterminated all the senti-
| ments of nature. Wives were deserted
| by husbands and children by parents.
| Some had shut themselves up in their
| houses and declared themselves from all
communication with the rest Of mankind.
The CONSERVATION of others had destroyed
| their understanding and their misguided
steps hurried them into the midst of the
danger which they had previously labored
TO shun. Men were seized by this disease in
the streets, passengers fled from them, en-
trance into their own dwellings was denied
them; they persisted in the public ways.
1.-THE chambers of disease were deserted
and the sick left to die of negligence None
could be found to remove the lifeless bodies
hntr it1s. cttfFa hXrr mic
meal, filled the air with deadly exhalations
and added tenfOld to the devastation"
This picture is very likely an exaggera-
ton, as might be expected from the ex-
cited minds of those who were fleeing from
the plague, and consequently imagined its
terrors even greater than they were That
there were some exceptions to this rule can
be seen from the following passage, written
| by one of the characters who seems to have
| taken more temperate view of the case:
| 1--WE ourselves, says the writer, enjoyed
| cool health and were hopeful of escap-
| ing with our lives. Our measures for this
end were cautiously taken AMI steadily
| adhered to. They did not consist in avoid
| ing the receptacle of infection, for my office
| required mo to go daily into the midst of
| them; nor in filing the house with the
exhalati1ns Of gunpowder, vinegar or tar.
| They consisted in cleanliness, reasonable
| exercise and wholesome diet. Custom had
| likewise blunted the edge of our apprehen-
| sioas."
This disease assailed men with different
| degrees of mallgnlty In its worst form,
| perhaps, it was incurable, but in some of
! its modes it was doubtless couquerable by
the skill of physicians and the fidelity of
nurses. In its least formidable conditions
| negligence and solitude would render it
| fatal.
AS the plague grew more violent
"Arther Meryn' concluded to go t. tie
city himself and endeavor to ascertai ii
| fate of his friends and relatives, from
! whom he had heard nothing in some
months. He sets forth alone, and as he
nears the 9th tho tokens of its calamitous
| condition becomes more apparent. EVERY
farm house was filled with supernumerary
| tenants, fugitives from home, and haunt
| ing the skirts of the road eager to
| detain every passenger with inquiries
| after news. The passengers were numer-
Gus, for the tide of emigration was by
no means exhausted Some were ON foot,
| bearing on their countenances the tokens of
| their recent terror and filled with mourn
| full reflections on the forlorness of their
| state. Few had secured to themselves an
asylum; some were without the means of
paying for victuals or lodging for the COM
ing night. Others, who were net thus
| destitute, yet knew not wither to apply for
overstocked with inhabitants or barring its
inhospitable doors at their approach.
Families Of weeping mothers and dis
mayed children, attended with few pieces
of indispensable furniture, were carried in
vehicles Of every form The parent or hus-
band had persisted, and the price of some
movable, or the pittance handed forth by
public charity, had been expended to pur-
| chase the means of retiring from this the
alter of disaster, though uncertain and hope
less of accommodation in the neighbcring
| citiesn
Following this is a picture that might
| have been taken from one of Poe's horrible
tales, and yet it bears the imprint of truth
plainly upon each line. He describes his
entry into Philadelphia. 1.-The sun ha d
nearly set before | reached the precincts of
tie city. pursued the track which had
formerly taken, and entered High street
after nightfall. Instead of equipages and a
throng of passengers, the voice of levity
and glee. which | had formerly observed
and which the mildness of the season would
have at other times produced, l found
nothing but a dreary solitude.
THE market place and each side of this
magnificent avenue were Illuminated as be-
fore by lamps, but between the verge of
Schuylkill and the heart of the city | met
not more than dozen figures, and these
| lilo in nipolrc ha