New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-08-27
MEMPHIS FEVER MAD.
Horrors of the Plague Which Rae
aged the City IN 1878 and 1879.

mightier power OF steam, big towboat has
been slowly pushing her acres Of barges toward
| the lighter current Of the Ohio. and her progress
| Is being watched with intense interest all along
the valley. Reported TO have the dread yellow
fever on board. she has made several attempts
to land at various points. but the shotgun quar-
/ antine prevented
| No resident OF the Mississippi Valley whose
| memory spans the quarter century and a little
more that lies between the new Memphis and ths
Death valley of 1878 and 1879 when the plague
covered the great delta and spread it's pail far
| away the hill country for miles back OF the
river and its reeking swamps. will faIter in tell
| ing how that plague came up the valley. II was
in another towboat. the John Porter. She left
New Orleans with empty barges while the fever
was raging in that city. in the early summer OF
1878. arriving at Memphis about ten days later.
The captain told the authorities here that there
were cases Of malignant malariaI fever on ths
boat. with which. in the absence OF proper rem
| edies and the skill 70 apply them he could not
cope He requested. therefore that the patients
| be received in the local hospital The "Sar1ari-
tan City" Memphis is known in the delta.
/ did not hesitate. but took the stricken men 20
her charitable bosom. Whether all died or some
| recovered does not matter now. but the doomed
| city was poisoned to the core
| In a few days the terrible truth was known
and the panic began. The scenes at the railway
| stations. few and inadequate to the ordinary
| summer rush. were Of the sort that Kill all faith
| In human kindness It was the frantic frenzy
| of fear maddened mob: sickenins appalling
| terrifying. The panic was not expected and not
| provided for. A train for the East stood under
a tumbledown trainshed One coach. half
smoker, half negro compartment: another coach
| for whites old style and small. and ramshackIe
sleeper made up the string. Two in a seat the
entire train might accommodate one hundred
and fifty passengers Two thousand fought
| Hadiy for admission to it, Every vehicle that
could crawl out OF the town was put in commits
sion. even to the one mule two wheel cotton
dray. to convey the crazed multitude from the
| doomed city. The refugees filed every farm
house. hamlet, village and town within radius
of more than one hundred miles. but an 1nlpIac-
able foe invaded their retreats The plague
followed where the pursued fed Hamlets gave
up their tens OF dead. villages their scores.
| towns their hundreds No one was safe. 10
place immune from it's uncurbed course
Memphis was the poisoned source v-hencA
moved the polluted streams. The newspaper
men stuck. unrecorded heroes TO their posts
and told daily the names of those who died
1hese were so many that the daily lists ran into
hundreds Doctors and nurses from the com
passionate North came to help. They meant
Wen and died heroes deaths. yet they only added
10 the victims In the thoroughfares that only
NE one might walk for blocks and meet no
human being save the living bearing the dead
But toward the cemetery was a continuous pro
cesslon- Hearses could not meet the demand
and everything that ran upon wheels was i'm
pressed-wagOns drays and trucks At the
ourylng places cOrpses came so fast that not
Tor months afterward were hundreds Of the
graves filled up, sections and volunteers hurry
ing from one burial TO another throwing on
sufficient earth TO cover the coffin, or. if there
were little more time. they filed the hole half
way
Every store was closed save the comu1issa rfas
"here ratlons were issued daily to the destitute
and sold TO such could buy. Such was the
day The night was far worse. There are mo-
words known that can tell of the horror of q
Memphis night in 1873 and 1879 or that can
make known the loneliness, the desolation the
terror. the despair that came over the soul in
the dark of those nights
From the brow Of the bluffs overharrine- the
SuIlen river many an inhabitant has watched
that silent tide roll onward in its lonely testy
even as the tide OF death rolled over the desOIats
city on ITS banks, enguldnS its thousands until
from incubation to madness seemed but a step
Not 1ootstep. not a hoofbeat not a whisper
not a sign Silence so absolute that to the over
wrought mind II could be felt, be seen be heard
NO brain could endure 1t for long-that silent
flow OF water and that silent flow OF death side
oy side wrecks OF brains as well as wrecks OF
oooles were cast up by the tides az those COM
ranton flows OK lSlS and 1873