The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-05-29
IN THE WAKE OF WAR
PestiIence More Deadly Than Battle Has Ever Followed
Great Armies All Over the World.

The plague, or pestilence. hat mys-
FERROUS and fearful visitation which
has moved its hosts in the wake of
armies to slay more than war 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
encampments of Xerxes, Cyrus and Ia
merline the Tartar. 1t probably
sprang from the impurity which must
have existed in the midst of such vast
gatherings. and in part also from leav-
ing the unburied dead upon the field
or battle. AT any rate, the germs OF
this fearful human poison a always
been most active where conditions
similar to those ave prevailed. 1t has
always been war. and the march of
armies that has spread 1t broadcast
over the world from time to time. And
as war became less frequent and less
worldwide the frequency and extent Of
these a have iessened also.
The first recorded outbreak of the
plague in Europe occurred in the 18th
century A. ID. 1t came from lower
Egypt. This was the first tapping of
the wave thai receded 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 Emperor Justinian brought II
again into the western world from the
battlefields of Persia.
Constantinople was the first place 1t
attacked. Here in a single day as many
as 5000 persons are said to have fallen
victims to it. But the plague did not
stop at Constantinople. 1t had found
a too congenial soil in Europe, which
was little else than one great battle-
field at the time. 1t was carried into
GauI, where it followed close in the
wake of the Frankish armies, and from
Gaul IL moved into Italy, with the
Lombards, and so devastated the
try as to leave it entirely at the mercy
of the invaders.
The various ~crusades, which extend
ed over "A space of about 200 years, no
in Europe. for they served to keep open
h channels of intercourse between
the East and the West. Periodical cpl
denies were common during their con-
t%inuance, and these seem to have cul-
minated in the 18th century with
is known in history as the black death.
The black death was more fatal to hui
man life than any other single cause
since the world began. The havoc of
war was nothing i'm comparison to it.
1t swept the whole of Europe, leaving
in its path such misery and restitution
as the world had never known. 1t
killed in three years some %, 600, 900 of
people. Such figures stagger the COM
prehension. but the records of the time
cannon be doubted. The entire popula-
ton of Europe Is estimated to have
been about LOG, 900. O00-kept down as it
was by the constant warfare-and of
these 100, 900, 900 at least a fourt per-
ished. The ravages of the plague in
Italy, where il came in the track of
the war of the Guelphs and Ghebel-
lines. was particularly disastrous. 1t
ragged with terrible fury in Naples,
where 60, 900 persons are said to have
died. 1t fell upon Pisa and seven out
of every ten persisted. 1t utterly and
forever destroyed the prosperity of
Siena. Florence also suffered severely,
while 100, 900 of the inhabitants of Ven
ice were literally wiped off the face
of the earth.
From Italy ii moved into France,
where the mortality was almost al