The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1907-09-26
THE BLACK SC0URGE
That Fearful and Mystic Vista
ton of OIden Days.
IT FOLLOWED IN WARS WAKE.
in the Fourteenth Century 1t Swept the
Whole of Europe, Killing 25,0o0,00o
In Three Years-The Pestilence In
London.

An Inree rearS- ne TSStiienCe III
London.
The plague or pestilence, that mystic
rious and fearful visitation which has
moved it's hosts in the wake of armies
to slay more than war itself, is sup
posed to have first originated among
the dense masses of people who crowd
ed together in the great cities of Asia
and Egypt or who formed the encamp-
ments of Xerxes, Cyrus and Tanner
lane the Tartar. 1t probably sprang
from the impurity which must have
existed in the midst of such vast gath
erings 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 conditions
similar to those have prevailed. 1t
has always been war and the march of
armies that. have 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
feenth century. 1t came from lower
Egypt This was the first tapping of
the wave that reached into the east
again, there to stay its movements, SO
far as the west was concerned, until
644 A. D., when the returning legions
OF the Emperor Justinian brought it
again into the western world from the
battlefields of Persia. ConstantinOple
was the first place it attacked. Here
in single day as many as 10000 per-
sons are said to have fallen victims to
it But the plague did not stop with
Gonstantinople. It had found too
cOngenial soil in Europe, 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 LON
bards, and so devastated the country
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
doubt did much to hold the peStilence
in Europe, for they served to keep
open the channels of intercourse be-
tween 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 human life than any
other single cause since the world be-
gan. The, havoc of war was nothing
In 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 25,000,O00 people.
Such figures stagger the comprehen-
sion, but the records of the time can
not be doubted The entire population
of Europe is estimated to have been
about 1OOOOO,OO0, kept down as it was
by the constant warfare, and of these
at least fourth persisted.
The ravages of the plague in Italy,
where it came in the track of the war
of the Guelphs and Ghibellines, was
particularly disastrous to mankind. It
ragged with terrible fury in Naples,
where 10000 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 100000 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 as great In Paris alone $4,000
people died from it. One of the worst
features presented by the history of
the black death was the cruel persecu-
ton it aroused against the Jews. They
were supposed to have infected the air
in some mysterious manner, and they
We're accused of having poisoned the
wells and springs. In Strassburg 1000
of them were buried alive in their own
burial ground.
The order Of the Flagellanto arose
at this time, coming from the belief
that the sins of the world had at last
brought down the wrath of heaven. 1t
was the beginning of the SO called
hundred years war that carried the
black death into England, where in
London it's victims numbered 100000.
When at last the plague had worked
its ravages it doubled back over its
course to disappear in the east. Later
on it appeared again in England,
first among the soldiers of Richmond
after the battle of Bosworth Field,
and when the victorious army marched
to London the plague went with them
TO work it's havoc there. AS long as it
lasted the mortality was as great as
that caused by the black death half a
century before. Five thousand people
died in five weeks, and then the plague
left London as suddenly as it had ap-
peared there to sweep over the rest of
England.
In Scotland the plague of 1868 came
Immediately after the battle of Lang
side, when Queen Mary was dethron-
ed, but no records of the mortality it
occasioned seem to have been pre-
served The rllague visited London in