The times., 1898-10-23

where buried poor Dick and Losen (who shot
himself in one grave. vert heme at to
find our darling boy down at last with fever.
Alice and | had been with hin continuously fo-
| seventy-two hours, when she suceumbed. -Four
hours later Walter to his bed. and today
grandma lies at deaths door.
But boy, my only baby b1yl His was
the worst have seen II rock two of
US to hold him in bed during his delirium. In
the midst of his ravipg, at the tsd OF the thisd
day. he suddenly stopped tossing put his hands
together. looked ZIP ind said his little pr1.er::
-'NCw lay down to slecp"-all of it to the
last word, then
20 please, mamma, please, papa, o please,
Gcd! give some water,
In the families around Us cold wat had al
ways killed. But my heart was already broken
In desperation gave him what he asked for, and
he drank four large goblcts OF water. All methods
had failed 10 induce perspiration, which Was his
sole hope. His anguish for water had been 50
great that when l would bsthc his lips he would
clutch at the cloth and chew il with irantiG
eagerness. But that prayer to God for water l
could not resist The watsr brought the per
spiration, and if he lives, and we think he will.
we will always feel that his o.'n prayer saved
him.
Across the square lives Mr. Boden not yet up
from fever. The day cur boy WAS taken ! had
put away Boden's three children, all he had, the
youngest named after mine, Arthur St. Clair Bo.
den. Judge my feelings October 10, when had
to write my own boy name next on the book!
l have now 800 under my personal care;
seventy-two deaths thus far today have male
and female nurse in my house from New Or
leans and am prepared for an attack upon the
whole family. As for me- | will only die OF
grief; mere fever cannot kill me.
II is proven here that those who have had yell
low fever previously not exempt.
In this house we are all resolved to die with
our faces to the foe Should this be my last, God
bless and keep you, best mother that son ever
had Good-hye and love to all. Ever, while life
lasts, your aifectionate CHARLIE
oil.
one of that family died. From baby to
aged grand-dame, all recovered. Nor did
the mayor have the fever; no pestilence
could touch such souls body.
The epidemic ran its course. Time
grassed over the woodland cemetery,
! where slept the victims of the scourge.
Their friends. relicts, children, if any re-
mained. wore crepe no longer. Boys grew
to manhood. and had votes between their
fingers. Tiger Island City was no longer
primitive and 'Cadian. Its population had
changed and Its borders extended for into
'.the swamp which it had reclaimed.
There were parts of the old town, near
est the bayou, which had twice been
flooded by an overflow, its goods and
properties ruined. One cyclone had knock
ed portion 6f 1t into ''pi;" another had
twisted its roofs out of use Both floods
| and both cyclones had devastated the
lands, and wrecked the houses of the
eX-mayor. until he had reached the verge
of bankruptcy. Then came a fire, which
burned his ipuse on Greenwood Street,
destroyed his fine library. ruined his pic
| lures, left his wife gownless and his son
| without a bed. And Tiger Island City
had chuckled and applauded-at safe
distance from the mayors fist-and had
uttered the significant words: Served
him rightr'
For times had changed with St. Clair
An hour had struck him when, panic
ended and prosperity restored-the peo-
pie had clamored for an accounting,
which. alas. the mayor could not give
His book was gone; no one knew with
er. A whispered suspicion crept into
print. was reprinted with addenda. in a
rival parish; was revised and retold until
the story OF st. Clair and his yellow
fever peculatlons was a household execra.
ton from Maine to Mexico Even Scot
land. from whence his semi-royal an
cestors had been exiled for faithful de-
votion to the Stuart, even Scotland re-
viled him as a dishonor to-
The lordly line OF high ST. Clair!
A few true friends who had fought with
and against him in the war; drank and
supped with him in after prosperity,
%, renominated him in IS for mayor.
Election meant hard work and little pay.
but II would avert actual bankruptcy and
remove an odium which vast majority
believed to be deserved. The new men
wanted new methods. He is an old
, man now they said, broken and use
less" He was a Republican and fought
against us in the wah," said some He
| is tyrannous and aggressive and will
Dgt.a 4 ~.
He is intolerant, and hypocrite," said
the gambler and the saioonkeeper He
1 Is an aristocrat," said the dago and the
| cracker. Sainclare, he ain homes" said
| the cullud population. And this is the
| nineteenth century, said the remaining
| 'Cadians, wonderingly.
Yes. it was; and w. CT T. woman
| who, as girl, had been a sweetheart to
| poor 603, a woman whose memory was
| as faithful as her work was fruitful. un-
| dertook against odds to prove it, by res
urrecting the facts about the subscrip-
| tons and disbursements of yeilow-fever
| time rs. when a woman ploughs.
strange things come to light
An enormous mass meeting assembled
| one day in Lawrence Park and listened
with rapt attention to the Rev. Jonas Bill
| cox colored, while he stigmatized the
Republican candidate for mayor as "a
usurper and a thief man who stole
1 bread from the dying and money from
| the daid, which had been donated by the
Nawth for that identical purposer' While
the audience boiled under this fervid elo-
quence, n tall, slender, well-made man
with snow-white hair innumerable wrln-
kles and coal-black eyes, a man unknown
to nine-tenths of the voters present.
walked calmly to the fore with a huge
yellow book under his arm. Behind him
| came the W. c. T. L.. woman, who had
ploughed to good purpose, unearthing
'Cadian Marie. who followed her, a ten
year-old copy of poor Hansen clinging to
her hand.
'Cadian Marie had long since vanished
from Tiger Island. Never mentally
able to endure the sight of those staring
headstones over their untimely dead, all
dead because of her. So she had exiled
herself. no one noticing that the yellow
book. over which she used to pore for
hours, had gone at about the same time.
MY friend, Bilcox." said St Clair,
has made a single nisstatement.
which l wish to correct He says / re-
ceived 5000 from the north which / mis-
applied during the scourge of '7S 'Tis
true, / misapplied that sum. but the
amount 1 received was ten and not five
thousand. How l misapplied 1t will be
shown by the book, just recovered from
the keeping of Marie Hansen, who took
it from my house, not knowing it's value
to me. I hereby offer it to your com
mittee for Inspection. Its contents will
finish my speech" Then he stepped
down and out.