Devils Lake inter-ocean and Devils Lake free press. (Devils Lake, Ramsey County, N.D.) 1905-1909, 1907-09-20
THE BLACK SCOURCE
That Fearful and Mystic Vista
ton of 0Iden Days.
1T FOLLOWED IN WARS WAKE.
In the Fourteenth Century It Swept the
Whole Of Europe, Killing $4,000 900
In Three Years-The Pestilence In
London,

IN nTc0 VCcSu0NNS ."
London.
The plague or pestilence, that mystic
rious and fearful visitation which has
moved its hosts in the wake Of armies
to STAY 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 unbur1ed 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 1t broadcast
over the world from time to time, and
as war became less frequent and less
worldwide the frequency and extent
VI LICoC laN Il SCo e lCooChSu o1oo.
The first recorded outbreak Of the
plague in Europe occurred in the six
teenth century. 1t came from lower
Egypt. This was the first tapping of
the wave that reached into the east
again, there to stay it's movements, SO
far as the west was concerned, until
ga A. D., when the returning legions
Of the Emperor Justinian brought it
again into the western world from the
battle6elds 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
Constantinople. 1t had found too
congenial soil III 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 Lom-
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-
i tween the east and the west. Periodic
/ continuance, and these seem to have
i 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 It's path
such misery and restitution as the
! world had never known. 1t killed in
three years some 25,000,00O 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 1O0,00O,OOO, kept down as 1t 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 wal
of the Guelphs and Ghibellines, was
particularly disastrous to mankind. II
ragged with terrible fury in Naples
where 10000 persons are said to have
died. 1t fell upon Pisa, and seven ou1
of every ten persisted. 1t utterly an6
forever destroyed the prosperity OF
Siena. Florence also suffered severely
while 100000 Of the Inhabitants OF
Venice we're literally wiped off the
face Of the earth. From Italy it moved
into France, where the mortality was
almost as great In Paris alone 5O,OO(
people died from it. One Of the wors
features presented by the history o.
the black death was the cruel persecu
ton it aroused against the Jews. They
were supposed to have infected the ali
in some mysterious manner, and the.
were accused Of having poisoned tn,
wells and springs. In Shassburg 200,
Of them were buried alive in their ow,
burial ground.
The order Of the Flagellanto aros,
at this time, coming from the belle
that the sins of the world had at las
brought down the wrath Of heaven. l
was the beginning Of the so called
hundred years war that carried tn
black death into England, where IL
London it's victims numbered 100000
When at last the plague had worke.
its ravages it doubled back over it
course to disappear In the east. Late
Oh 1t appeared again in England
first among the soldiers Of Richmon,
after the battle Of Bosworth Field
and when the victorious army marche.
to London the plague went with then
to work its havoc there. AS long as /
lasted the mortality was as great a
that caused by the black death half
century before. Five thousand peopl
died in Ave weeks, and then the plagu
left London as suddenly as 1t had an
peared there to sweep over the rest 0
England.
In Scotland the plague Of 1868 cam
Immediately after the battle of Lang
!, side, when Queen Mary was dethron
cd, but no records Of the mortality
occasfoned seem to have been prs
served. The plague visited London 4