The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-11-01
FREAKS OF THE FEVER.
Strange Phases Shown by the Yellow
Death.


Judge Richard n. CLARK Tells of Them.
How the Disease Appeared in the
Early Years of the Century-Its
Work at Savannah, Norfolk, Charles
ton, Augusta and Elsewhere-Inter-
esting "Reminiscences.
Judge Richard H. Clark in Atlanta Journal.
When a child only few years old, !
heard my mother often speak of the hor.
rors of yellow fever, and espec tally of the
terrible epidemic in Savannah of 1920,
then only ten years past
This awakened an interest in the
scourge, and having since been contem-
poraneous with several epidemics, I'have
some information relative to it that may
be both interesting and instructive.
In the early years of this century, and
perhaps during the former, it occasionally
! appeared at Savannah, my native city.
In speaking of that of 1920, mention was
made of one in 1917 and of 1921 in the same
city. The next appearance at Savannah
was in 1854, by which it will be seen Sa-
vannah was exempt for twenty-seVen
! years. Two well known features of the
fever were that few natives Of the city
took it, and for a negro to have it was eX-
ceptiOnal.
In 1858, four years later, Savannah had
a return, but it began late in the season
and was barely epidemic; but peculiar
ity of it was that a liberal per cent. of
natives took it and several well known,
| even distinguished citizens died of it.
The next return was in 1875, and dem
onstrated that negroes were no longer ex-
| empts, for the fever only spared them a
! little more than it did the whites. The
| observation may be made here that it is
an epidemic that abOunds in surprises.
| The supposition as TO the largely increased
| liability of negroes was that their habits
of living had become so much changed
after they ceased to be slaves.
The most interesting part in the history
of yellow fever, within my knowledge.
was that in 1853 it visited every city and
town on the'Gulf coast from Galveston TO
| Tampa, except Apalachicola. and then the
next year, 1854, it resumed its Zine of
march" on the Atlantic coast. beginning at
| St Augustine and progressed as far as
| Wilmington, n. c., attacking every city
except Brunswick. This led TO the
! opinion that Brunswick was exempt, for it
escaped that time, and had never had it
| before. The next year it seemed to have
| again resumed its march, and attacked
| Norfolk. Va. 1t went no further north,
for although in the early history of the
cities of New York and Philadelphia they
| Hdu DecH NlSiJGu Ny II, yen lOF Il great
| number of years they had been exempt,
so they had ceased to be counted among
| the possibilities.
AS | said, the next appearance at Sa-
vannah and other southern cities was in
| 1876.
| The epidemic of that year presented
| another new feature, and that Is there
were cases in the adjoining country as at
| Isle of Hope and Thunderbolt. for all pre-
| 1riO1u 70, fl,n, 1T
| limits, but Guyton. only thirty miles
| distant, was exempt notwithstanding
| there were several cases there coming
| from Savannah, and among them several
| deaths. 1t is now feature of the fever
at Brunswick, that it has appeared and
is epidemic at the small interior town of
.esup, which causes fear for other inte-
riOr towns in that part of the state
AS to exemptions of other cities and
towns, remark IN this connection that in
the epidemic of 1854, there were some ten
| or twelve deaths III Macon of persons who
came from Charleston and Augusta, and
yet no resident of the city took it,
Later and likewise, while the epidemic
prevailed at Memphis, New Orleans and
Mobile, there were deaths in Atlanta of
persons coming from one or the other of
those cities. Also there have been deaths
from Asiatic cholera on two or three occa-
sions, of strangers bringing it there with
them, without any spread of the disease.
Physicians have a theory. which be
lieve is entertained by a large majority of
| them, that yellow fever is always i'm
ported, that it begins by the introduction
of some one having it from Cuba Mexico
or some tropical country, or is carried in
clothing or the like. Against this theory
may be mentioned the strange aud sur
prising fact thai in the year 1873 las re-
! member) there were only two towns iii
the whole United States where there
| was yellow fever These were the small
interior towns of Shreveport, La, and
| cambridge, Ga. 1t was not at Memphis
nor New Orleans nor Mobile, nor Charles
| ton, nor Savannah, yet it was at the two
small towns, and caused many deaths.
| From the facts stated, we see that yellow
fever has freaks, which are strange and
| surprising. And the popularity is. that
while in some years it visits all, or nearly
| all of the cities subject to it, vet in other
| years it visits only one, and there CON
fines itself as few years back it did to
| jacksonville and has this year to Bruins
wick. Fl
| These and other freaks of the disease
| explode the most plausible, and even well
esta blished theories, and thwart the
| Skill of the greatest experts. Such are
mysteries, and may always so remain.
| Other diseases are likewise mysterious
but The most mysterious, according to nv
limited knowledge, is the one the French
have named la grippe, because it attacks
all kinds of people, and in all kinds of
! climates. We never know when it is
coming until it comes, and we never know
when II was gone, for to make a sort Of
Irish bull, it is here after it has gone.
RICHARD H. CLARK,
Atlanta, Ga.
!