The west Tennessee star. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1888, 1888-10-26
BACKGROUND.
The Blight of Death Amid the
Beauty of Indian Summer.

Reading Of the ravages of yellow
fever Mt Jacksonville, Fla, brings to
my mind an outbreak of smallpox far
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 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 any
other towns. A lonesome and uncer-
tain line of railroad ran through the
the place, along which crept 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
it 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 a top-heavy
car would tip over and roll on its back
on the prairie in a perfectly helpless
condition. There was no other COM
munication with the outside world ex-
cept by teams across the country, and
this 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 out in town,
but made its appearance in half q
dozen different places in the surround
ing country, from five to ten miles
distant, almost at the same time. The
settlements in the country were scat
toring. The nearest neighbors some
families had were three or four miles
away. The greatest part of the land
was unbrolen prairie.
1t was but few days when the cases
were reported on all sides. None had
vet 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
-,
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, hay, Indian summer air. One
day, in the very heart OF the city, il
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 i'm the
opposite direction TO the train at the
time Our only telegraph operator
went twenty miles into the country ia
nurse a brother sick of the disease. in
a little square box of a house on his
homestead, up on the Strayhorse creek.
Our little island was cut off from the
rest OF the world Many went out
from the town to help nurse the i'll. O,
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
ansides. There were "a great number OF
foreigners among the settlers-many
Norw egians, some from Finland
others from Russia, n few even from
Iceland-and vaccination was not com.
mon among them. II was two weeks
before any vaccine points could be OBJ
tanned, and then a man brought them
overland on horseback. The mellow
Indian summer weather, with its law
sky and with just ghost Of a soft
south wind-only enough to make the
great yellow ranks Of wild sunfower.
nod their heads lazily-brought nj
hints of any thing but health. The
streets Of the town were deserted
almost as stil as the prairie without
There the grass was dry and clunp
close TO the ground, more gray thar
brown. and the stiffness was oppres.
sive. You mounted 70 the TOP of one
Of the prairie waves, and the mile.
YOU could see of across the billowv
rolling sea Of dry and withered gras,
showed you nothing except two OF
three little board or sod houses, over
which, perhaps. death was towering