The evening tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 189?-190?, 1897-08-02
DEATH ON THE TRAIN
OF THIRTY-N,hE WHO NEE IT AT THE
STATION ONLY ONE SURVIVED.


An Immigrant Woman and Her Two Chill
dren Carried DesoIation tn . Pennsyl-
vania Town - The Cholera Epidemic OF
1862 and Its Victims.
IA generation or so ago tho arrival of a
railroad train at rural stations was thing
Of much greater rarity than IL Is today, f"
said Pennsylvania railroad employee,
"and 1t was invariably greeted by the
gathering at the station of almost the en-
| tire population. One morning In the sum-
mer of 1859 was one Of a group of 30
| lust such curious folk, mostly men-but
| thore were three or four womon-who were
gathered at the railroad station at Colum-
| bia, Pa, awaiting the coming Of the i'm
migrant train from Philadelphia, which
| was due at a. m. The train came In az
usual, and three weeks from that day ev-
cry one OF that group of 50 persons was
dead and buried except myself. The con-
ductor of the train helped from IL at Col
umbi "a woman with two small children.
The woman was German Immigrant,
and both she and her children had been
taken very Ill on the train, and the oon-
ductor had deemed 1t best to leave her at
Columbia for medical treatment
photographic communication was not
yet established there with the outside
world, and daily newspapers were q rarity.
Cholera had been raging at the seaboard
cities, but the extent of the calamity or its
possible spread through the country was
not appreciated in the rural districts. The
suffering woman and her children were
helped by sympathetic hands to smell
frame building near by, and some one ran
for doctor. 1t was some time before the
doctor came, and In the interval every one
In that crowd had come In contact with
the suffering immigrants In efforts to help
their intense suffering. The doctor arrived
at last, but the mother Of the children had
become worse SO rapidly that she was In
the throes of death. Tho doctor had no
sooner seen her face than he turned where
he stood and waving his hands frantically
toward the crowd exclaimed:
"'Choleral My God, oholeral'
Instantly we fed. remember that I
found myself hiding behind pile Of lum-
ber long way from the station. was In
those days clerk In a store at Columbia.
] was only young chap, but had sense
enough to say to myself that II was
doomed to the cholera 1t would be just as
well for me to remain In Columbia as to
go elsewhere, and so I staid, but when tho
awful news sprcad-the two children Of
the German woman having died not long
after she died-people began leaving Co.
lumbia pellmell to escape the dreaded con-
sequences Of that accidental infection.
This frantic exodus lasted but day, how
ever, for the people of the outlying country
placed on tho people of Columbia what
was perhaps tho most effective quarantine
that was ever placed on any people In this
or any other country. They stationed oor-
dons Of armed guards all about Columbia,
with instructions to shoot down any per-
son who attempted to pass from that in
fected place to neighboring towns. Before
this had been done, though, many of Co.
lumbia's 8 residents had fled to York, Har-
risburg and other towns, and, as the re-
suit proved, infected those places
"Within three days after the death of
the German woman and her children chol-
era had possession of the town. 1t was
the custom then in Pennsylvania rural
towns when person died for the sexton
of some church to toll the bell stroke for
each year that the decedent had lived, and
the cholera epidemic was soon such In CO.
lumb bia that the tolling of the church bells
became continuous. The deaths were so
numerous that for three weeks, day or
night, there was not minute when the
church bells were not tolling. Some one
had suggested early In this awful time
that the burning of soft coal and pitch in
the streets would so purify the air that the
result would be the staying OF the spread
of the pestilence. We had no anthracite
coal then, and soft coal and pitch were
heaped at every street corner and fired.
The heavy black smoke from these fires
rose and hung over the place for. weeks
like pail Whether It did any good or
not can't say, but I know that 1t added
to the gloom Of the scenes we had to wit
ness daily.
II said that out Of the 80 people who
met that emigrant train on that beautiful
summer morning only myself survived,
but did not say that I helped In the
burial of every one Of them, among them
my brother and my father. Deaths were
30 frequent that we all became hardened.
Instead of fright an utter disregard OF the
value Of life governed every one met
one day the man was working for.
How are your he said.
'All right thus far replied.
"C,e hour later helped lower his body
into a trench. An old darky was the
grayedigger of the village, and when the
demands on him became so great and no
one seemed willing to share the task With
him he was by common consent permitted
to charge $40 for every body inferred. He
worked day and night, and when, months
afterward. his services were paid for his
widow received 81, 900. Had the old man
lived through 1t all be might have received
more than twioe that sum, but he died OF
cholera In the midst Of 1t all, and be was
buried I'm trench he himself had dug. In
ono day we buried lS0 victims OF the
scourQe. don't believe there Is another
place in this country. considering Its sit.
uation in tho most healthful region that
can be imagined, that ever was the victim
of such q pestilential visitation as that.
- aoo .-u...x..... at,x, p-Noxv XorL