The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1907-09-04
THE BLACK SCOURGE
That Fearful and Mystic Vista
ton of 0Iden Days.
IT FOLLOWED IN WARS WAKE.
In the Fourteenth Century II Swept the
Whole of Europe, Killing $4,000, 900
In Three Years-The PestiIenee In

In Three Years-The Pestienee In
London.
The plague or pestilence, that mystic
rious and fearful visitation which has
moved its 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 Nerxes, 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
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 its movements, so
far as the west was concerned, until
544 A. D., when the returning legions
of the Emperor Justinian brought it
again into the western world from the
battiefelds of Persia. Constantinople
was the first place it attacked. Here
in a 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 a 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 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-
tween the east and the west. Periodic
epidemics were common during their
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 25,000000 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 100000, 900. kept down as it was
by the constant warfare, and of these
at least a fourth persisted.
The ravageS of the plague in Italy,
where it came in the track of the war
Of the Guelphs and Ghibellines, was
disastrous to mankind. 1t
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 |
-ha he
ion it aroused against the Jews. They |
we're supposed to have infected the air |
n some mysterious manner, and they |
we're accused of having poisoned the |
wells and springs. In Strassburg 1000 |
If thcm were buried alive in their own |
burial ground.
The order of the Flagellanto arose |
1t this time, coming from the belief |
hat the sins of the world had at last |
brought down the wrath of heaven. IT |
vas the beginning of the so called |
years war that carried the |
black death into England, where in |
london its victims numbered 100000.
When at last the plague had worked
Is ravages it doubled back over it's
curse to disappear in the east. Later
N it appeared again in England,
irst among the soldiers of Richmond
Ifter the battle of Bosworth Field,
nd when the victorious army marched
o London the plague went with them
o work its havoc there. AS long as it
asted the mortality was as great as
hat caused by the black death half a
entury before. Five thousand people
led in five weeks, and then the plague
eft London as suddenly as it had ap
eared there to sweep over the rest OF
n gland.
In Scotland the plague of 1865 came
after the battle o. Lang
ide, when Queen Mary was dethron-
d, but no records of the mortality II
ccasioned seem to have been pre-
erved. The plague visited London in
6l5. This followed after the civil war
rhich ended with the death of Charles
L., but so many years interviewed that
is impossible to trace any connection
etween the two events. In modern
Tars danger from the plague seems
to Eave lessened perhaps as
result of better sanitary conditions
a Nv he 90 t@I1