Smyrna times., 1898-07-27
THE BLACK DEATH.
THAT FEARFUL PLAGUE THAT FOL-
LOWS IN THE WAKE OF WAR.

Millions of People In Three Years-The
PestiIence In London.
The plague, or pestilence, that mys-
terious and fearful visitation which has
moved its hosts i'll the wake of armies
to slay more than wGr itself, is supposed
to have first originated among the dense
masses of people who crowded together
in the great cities of Asia and Egypt, or
who formed the encampment of Xerxes,
Cyrus and Tamerlane the Tartar. 1t
probably sprang from the impurity
which must have existed in the midst
of such vast gatherings and in part also
from leaving the unburied dead upon
the field of battle AT any rate the
germs of this fearful human poison have
always been most active where condi
tions similar to those have prevailed. 1t
has always been war and the march OF
armies that has spread it broadcast over
the world from time to time, and as
war became less frequent and less
worldwide the frequency and extent Of
these ravages have lessened also.
The first recorded outbreak of the
plague in Europe occurred i'll the six
teenth century. 1t camo from lower
Egypt. This was the first tapping of the
wave that reached into the east again,
there to stay its movement so far as the
west was concerned until 544 A. d.,
when the returning legions of the En-
perOr Justinian brought it again into
the western world from the battletields
of Persia. ConstantinOple was the first
place it attacked. Here i'll a single day
as many as 1000 persons are said to
have fallen victims to it. But the plague
did not stop with CCnstantinople. 1t
had found a too congeniai soil i'll Eu-
rope, which was little else than one
great battlefield at the time. 1t was
carried into Gaul, where it followed
close in the wake of the Frankish
armies, and from Gaul it moved into
Italy, with the Lombards and so devas-
tated the country as to leave it entirely
at the mercy of the invaders.
The various crusades, which extended
over space of about 200 years, no
doubt did much to held the pestilence
III Europe, for they served to keep open
the channels Of intercourse between the
east and the west Periodic epidemics
were common during their continuance,
and these seem to have eliminated in
the fourteenth century with what is
known in history as the black death
The black death was more fatal to hu-
man life than any other single cause
since the world begau. The havoc of war
was nothing in comparison to it. 1t
swept the whole of Europe, leaving III
it's path such misery and destitutiun as
the world had never known. 1t killed in
three years some $4,000, 900 of people.
Such figures stagger the comprehension,
but the records of the time cannot be
doubted. The entire population of Eu-
rope is estimated to have been about
100, 900, OOO-kept down as it was by
the constant warfare-and of these 100,
900, 600 at least a fourth perished.
The ravages of the plague in Italy,
where it came in the track Of the wal
of the Guelphs and Ghibellines, was
particularly disastrous to mankind. Il
ragged with terrible fury in Naples,
where 60, 900 persons are said to have
died. 1t fell upon Pisa and seven out oi
every ten perished. 1t utterly and for
ever destroyed the prosperity of Siena
Florence also suffered severely, while
100, 900 of the inhabitants of Venice
were literally wiped off the face of the
earth. From Italy it moved into France
where the mortality was almost a
great; in Paris alone 90, 600 people dieC
from it. One of the worst features pre-
sented by the history of the black deatl
was the cruel persecution it aroused
against the Jews. They were supposed
to have infected the air i'll some mys
terious manner, and they were accused
of having poisoned the wells an,
springs. In Strassburg 1900 of then
were buried alive in their own buria
ground.
The order of the Flagellanto arose a
this time, coming from the belief tina
the sins Of the world had at last brOugh
down the wrath of heaven. 1t was tn
beginning of the so called Hundre
Years war that carried the black deaf
1uIO EuSluLNy WuCIG III 1OuUOu It's VIZ
Tins numbered lOO OO0 When at las
the plague had worked it's ravages,
doubled back over its course, to disaI
pear in the east In l845 it appeare
again i'll England, first among the so
diers of Richmond after the battle {
Bosworth Field, and when the victC
rious army marched to London til
, plague went with them to work il
havoc there. AS long as it lasted I'll
mortality was as great as that cause
by the black death half century b.
fore. Five thousand people died in fly
weeks, and then the plague left Londo
as suddenly as it had appeared there,
, sweep over the rest of England.
In Scotland the plague of 1868 can
Immediately after the battle of Lam
side, when Queen Mary was dethronet
but no records OF the mortality it occ
stoned seem to have been preserve,
The plague visited London in 1877
This followed after the civil war whiC
ended with the death of Charles II, b
so many years intarv ened that it is il
: possible to trace any connection betwel
;. the two events. In modern wars dang
from the plague seems gradually
have lessened, perhaps as a result
better sanitary conditions maintain
by the armies of today. y.-Philadelph
S Press.