The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1888-02-09
let Truth Prevail.


manufactured and then magnifed
and enlarged, and then doubled, as it
may travel only II few miles Init thus
it is and thus il ever has been A fire
occurs in town, few houses are
burned up. and by the time it gets
four or five miles into the country the
story Of the fire has doubled and mag
nifed, and swelled up like the toad
that met the OK, until it is ready to
explode and by the time it has passed
few more mouths and miles it will
be told emphatically that tho town
has burned up. So it is with every
thing that transpires throughout the
country, and so it is with the amount
of sickness in this city. True there
has been and is now some sickness in
this place, but it has been magnified
beyond anything that the citizens OF
the place can conceive of. The writer
was in the town of Elizabethton on
Monday,the 30th ult., and found many
people who seemed to be greatly
alarmed for the welfare OF johnson
City, and from hearssy they were es.
timating the number OF cases OF fever
at from seventy-fve to three hundred,
and deaths at the rate OF from three
to seven day; and some OF them &C.
tually asked il anybody ever got we'll
who ever had that fever.
Then he accidentally met o gentle
man from Carolina, who stopped over
in Jonesboro on Monday, the S0th ult,
(only seven miles distant,) and he
said physician of that place told him
that seven deaths had occurred at
Johnson City the Sunday before. A
lady who arrived in this place last
Sunday morning from the same place,
said that while waiting at the depot
for the train she heard some gentle
men talking, and that some one in the
crowd made the remark that seven or
eight deaths had occurred the day be.
fore in Johnson City.
Now, the truth of the matter is this
there was no one died in johnson
City on last Sunday week, and only
one death on last Saturday, and that
not from fever, but consumption and
there were but two other deaths from
Sunday ill Saturday--one OF these
caused by relapse Of measles. the other
a colored girl, from fever. There never
has been az many as FIVE deaths in
one day, nor has there been as many
as eight deaths during any week that
am aware Of, nor do believe thai
there has been as many as eight deaths
from fever-among the white popula
ton of Johnson City--during the en-
tire fall and winter, and | do not be
lieve that the mortality has beer
greater among the colored population
II | am wrong hope some one viii
correct me. Neither do believe tina
twenty five cases OF fever can be founC
! in the city to-day.
Then why not let the truth prevail
) Why magnify to such q wonderful ex
tent the sickness and mortality tina
exists here? Does any one profit BY
it? Does it keep the we'll from gettin,
sick, or will it make the sick well, by
repeating and enlarging on what you
may have heard, which is alread,
, highly colored, to say the leastY
Remember that Johnson City ha
: from $500 to 1900 inhabitants, and
90 cases OF sickness should be in tn,
town (Which is not true), it would onl,
DO one IN about every So OF its popu
= Iation Now take almost any section
OF the country you please, that repre-
+ sents as great population, and see i
you will not find almost ii not quite a
many cases, and in some locahtie
more.
Let the truth be told though tn
e heavens fall
WILEY NJ. Christian.
D - -