The Winslow mail., 1898-01-15

there's too much of this carbolic acid
and stuff. No, fever can't live here.'
WELL" remarked one more energet-
ic, ''you folks are a set of fools. I'm
going to get out of here. You can stay
and have it if you want to, but I'm
goin' out in the piney woods, men the
old woman'n the kids. Good-by, I'm
gone" And he strobe rapidly down
the street
The sun shone with a brassy tinge;
the heat radiated from the sides Of the
buildings.
The man FASTENED on to his home.
He passed an acquaintance, an old in
habitant, and the patriarch remarked
dolefully:
Hits fine weather fer yaller fever.
Now l remember when it wuz so bad
in '78, we had jest this yer sort of
weather, en- hit spread like"
He looked around, and found himself
alone. The man was going on up the
street rapidly. The old inhabitant
chuckled like some old fend.
Hes skeered," he mumbled, "hes
skeered plumb to death. 1 hain't; l
had it in '78. Lawd, Lawd, how skeer-
ed tn folkses is! If hadn't ter had
hit, I'd be skeered, too. Yaller Jacks
er bad ole boy, er mighty savigerous
ole cussp' And chuckling and croaking
gleefully he ambled slowly down to
where the stores were, that he might
play upon the fears of the men there
The houses were all closed. 1t seemed
as though there was a death in every
one. Even the children on the galleries
were too frightened to play. The town
was strangely silent.
The man hurried on. In his imag-
inings, the grisly specter of yellow
fever was right behind him, with its
skinny claws outstretched. Although
the day was fearfully hot, sort of ner-
vOus rigor came over him. He stopped
and mopped the drops of cold perspi---
tion from his brow, and his heart
throbbed violently. He had heard it
said that yellow fever always com
menced with chill and pain In the
head He put his hands to his head
nervously. 1t already panied him. He
thought of his wife and children, and
whether he ought to go to them or not.
His eyes were bloodshot and wild. He
leaned against q fence and tried to
think. No, there was no way for him
to have become infected. He tried to
calm himself, and then continued on
his journey.
He entered the house. His wife was
covering in one room, with the chill
dren, gray with fear, clinging to her.
She had packed the trunks and in
large goods box was piled an assort-
ment of provisions and cooking uten-
sils. In few moments the wagon was
ready. A pile Of bedding and the
trunks and provisions were placed in
it. In a cloud of dust it vanished up
the road leading to the pine forests that
loomed up vast and dark and myste-
rious in the distance.
The fever had come. Insiduously,
stealthily, it had crept in. There were
at first only a few cases. They didn't
know it was fever at first and the con-
tagion spread. Then one patient died,
and the old doctor, after deliberating
among the cobwebs and iodoform-
fumes of his dusty and weather beaten
office announced it as yellow fever.
There was a wild rush to get out Of
town. Men with blanched faces and
staring eyes rushed aimlessly about,
each avoiding the other as far as possi-
BILE. People were leaving the place on
foot, on horseback, In wagons The
fright added to the danger, and some
were stricken as they endeavored to
leave and were carried back to die.
The church bell tolled constantly, and
day after day the town hearse could be
seen vending it's way to the lonely lit
tie burying ground up on the red hill,
where the pines whispered sadly. And
the buzzards sat upon the house tops
and waited waited.
There were few houses occupied.
Most of them were closed, while some
owners had left without shutting doors
on windows, so great was their hurry.
The frost had come. For three nights
in succession the ground was white.
The weeds were blackened and drear,
and the leaves were falling fast. The
fever could live no longer.
One by one the stragglers came back.
Where whole families had gone away,
one or two members would return.
Some were never heard of again. A
few skeletons lying under the magno-
las and bay trees in the lowlands, and
the buzzards sailing p1acidly above in
the deep blue sky could have told the
tale.
Some of the stores reopened and some
remained closed, for there was no one
to undo the rusty locks. Some of the
houses were the same. The people who
returned were saddened and cowed.
They had passed through the Valley Of
the Shadow.
Down the street came wagon filled