Los Angeles herald., 1892-10-02

that slew es it chose than of an advancing
army from which it was known no quarter
could be expected The one danger is in
visible and cannot be combated; the other
is tangible and against it there is fight
ing chance. Therein lies both the differ
ence and the reason for the contrast of the
amount OF terror created.
This being the situation, it is no wonder
that the presence or apprehension of a
plague excites people Of even average intel
Igence to such an extent that they break
loose from the restraints of government
and resort to Illegal measures. The mob
indeed has been the multitude's final pro
test against the existing order Of things
in all lands and centuries of which we
have any knowledge. 1t has destroyed
dynastics and slain individuals It has
reveled in massacre and robbery, and
again it has exterminated hordes of thieves
and purified the political air with the cy-
clonic force of it's relentless wrath. 1t has
sent kings to the scaffold and peasants to
the throne. 1t has destroyed cities and torn
down feudal barriers, and it has been the
parent of reforms and the father of evils
But of all the unreasoning and self de-
structive things in the world mob in
spired by fear is the worst When pesti-
lence is the cause of the CONSERVATION, a
certain wild despair prevails, which mani
fosts itself in defiance Of the powers Of God
and nature What, for instance, can be
more bloodcurdling than that song written
by British army officer in India during
one of the great cholera epidemics, and
which begins
We meet meath the sounding rafter,
And the walls around are bare;
AS they echo our peals of laughter
1t seems that the dead are there.
Then stand by your glasses steady
This world is q world of lies
Here's health to the dead already,
Hurrah for the next that dies
When this poem was written fifty gal
liant but hopeless men, with English pluck
in their hearts and English uniforms on
their backs, roared out the chorus to this
grim defiance to the destroyer, and then
took up the daily task Of trying to control
and care for the thousands of soldiers and
natives at their station, who through panic
had become almost mob and who were
dying as fast as flies on a frosty morning.
At each recurring breakfast in the Off
GERS messroom the refrain was heard,
"Hurrah for the next that dies!" always
preceded by the announcement from the adj
jutant that such a one or SO many of their
comrades had succumbed. Then the
dwindling band of Anglo-Saxon stoics
and heroes marched out to their du-
ties and their death. The fifty became
forty. Then but twenty-five remained.
At the dawn of one terrible day nine only
sang the song, and the next morning the
adjutant ate alone. Undismayed, he fought
on. He controlled the dwindling mob; he
brought order out of chaos, and at last re-
turned to his English home, carrying with
him the story of that awful siege with
death and also the words and music of the
ghastly song from which have ventured
to quote but few lines.
These present days of trial and doubt
have also evolved plague song, which is
more of a historical and literary nature
than the other. By that / mean that it is
not born of actual experience. 1t is from
the pen OF Clinton Scollard, and the first
and last stanzas read:
oh, the wind from the desert blew in! Khan
sin,
The wind from the desert, blew inl
It blew from the heart of the fiery south,
From the fervid sand and hills of drouth,
And 1t kissed the land with its scorching
mouth;
The wind from the desert. blew in!
Into the cool OF the mosque 1t crept,
Where the poor sought rest at the prophets
shrine;
It's breath was fire to the jasmine vine
1t fevered the brow of the maid who slept;
And men grew haggard with the revel of wine;
The tiny fiedglings died in the nest;
The sick babe gasped at the mothers breast;
Then o rumor rose and swelled and spread
From tremulous whisper, faint and vague,
Till 1t burst in a terrible cry of dread
The plagued The plague! The plagued
Oh. the wind Khamsin.
Tho scourge from the desert, blew in.
AAz