The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-09-29
IN A YELLOW FEVER EPIDEMIC,
A Trip Through the South During the
Terrible Days of 1873,

"
| fever epidemic is apt to have expert
ences which he will not readily forget
l retain vivid recollections of trip
made over the Illinois Central railroad
from New Orleans to Memphis, Tenn,
during the awful epidemic of 1878, when
the fever arged in every town along the
line and people were dying so fast that
the disposal of their bodies was trying
problem. Traffic, of course, was demor-
allied, and if remember correctly, there
was only one passenger train daily out
from New Orleans The train which
carried the gentleman whom l accompa-
MED moved along at the proVok-
ing rate of twelve miles an hour, being
under orders not to go faster. Marks oil
the devastating epidemic We're to De
! seen on every hand. At intervals OF
few miles We're found quarantine camps,
where men in their shirt sleeves and
with shot guns on their shoulders paced
up and down defined lines, while little
| further on would be huge column OF
smoke rising from fire fed on bedding,
| clothing and other infected materials.
| Our train sped through the towns with
out stopping, and in spite of intense neat
| the car windows were lowered as we
went through lIle Level lSheii SSiiA
munities in order to lessen the danger OF
coming in contact with germs.
We were to stop at Holly Springs,
Miss, on our way to Memphis. we
reached that little town, where the fever
was particularly bad, in the early morn
ing, and after carrying us three miles
| beyond the depot the conductor stopped
the train and put us off in the woods.
We walked back to the city over the
railroad track and experienced the nov
city of walking over high trestle ABOUT
mile long. This in the early morning
on an empty stomach, was not a partlc-
ularly pleasing diversion. In Holly
| Springs we found that about fifty per
| cent. of the population, normally,
think, about five thousand, had fled at
| the first sound of alarm, the greater part
of those who remained had died ana
most of the others were taking thelr
meals at the one hotel which renamed
open. All business was at standstlli,
! shops and stores of every description
/ had been deserted, and supplies or rood,
medicine and clothing We're distributed
daily by a committee whose duty was to
! see that nobody suffered for want of the
+, necessities of life. AT the hotel we We're
| cordially greeted and told that we were
! the only outsiders who had come into
| the city for several weeks The town at
| that time was pretty nearly cut off from
/ communications with the world. The
one telegraph operator, who had stuck
to his post heroically day and night for
weeks was about to succumb, and 1t
was impossible to get man to come
and relieve him. Six operators who had
| preceded him during the epidemic had
died one after the other, and it was
| difficult matter to find volunteers to
| face what seemed to be almost certain
/ death
I heard of one rather pathetic incident
which developed during the Holly
Springs epidemic. One of the most ac
tive workers on the Citizens relief COM
mittee was a well-known lawyer, who
spent the day and night ministering to
/ the needs of his felloW-townsmen. One
| day he became involved In an argument
/ with another worker, a physician, which
became so strong that a challenge to
/ duel was issued and accepted 1t was
mutually agreed however, that it was
not proper time for duelling, and it
was understood that the men should
| fight with pistols as soon as the epidenl-
ic was over This programme would
! probably have been carried out but for
the intervention of Providence. A few
days later the lawyer was attacked with
yellow fever. Ills temperature rose
! fearfully, and within three days he was
| dead. He knew that death had claimed
him, and his last words to those around
him were: Bury me quick" He rea
liked that delay in burying corpses as
sisted the spread of the disease
Arriving in the stricken city of Mem
phis, we found the pail of fever covering
community of about one-third the
normal population. All who could do so
had gone north at the first alarm, and of
those who remained only few escaped
the ravages of the plague. Business
was suspended and business houses
We're closed The supplies necessary for
| the sick and their nurses We're sent in
from other cities and arrived by the car
| load daily. These supplies were distrib-
uted to relief depots opened in various
quarters of the city and We're given out
| upon acquisitions signed by physicians
and members of the relief committee
/ The doctors and nurses sent in from
other cities We're entertained at the Pea
body Hotel al the expense of the city,
and one could start from the hotel and
| walk for miles without meeting any one
but a physician hurrying from patient
to patient, or the drivers of express
wagons loaded With corpses in rough
pine boxes being driven to the common
buryng ground. This burying ground
| was an old cotton patch in the suburbs
| of the city. and here the corpSeS were
| deposited in long trenches dug to a
| depth of six feet and covered over with
out any attempt at the regulation
| mound. The important object was to
get the bodies under ground as quickly
as possible, and delay was often occa-
stoned because of inability to secure
men to dig graves The corpse-laden
| wagons made constant procession
from the fever hospitals, and the coffin,
| emblematic of the city's distress, was to
be encountered at every turn. At one
time during the epidemic there was a
meat famine, and for a fortnight the
only meat eaten by guests at the Pea
body was chicken. The demand for
quinine staple remedy in fever cpl
denies, was so great that the price went
Up to sixteen dollars an ounce.
After few weeks in Memphis l was
again on the Gulf coast, where the fever
ragged AS an illustration of the fright
with which the disease paralyzes COM
munities, the story of the death of a
young man. Odum by name, is timely.