Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1907-09-09
THE BLACK ScOURGE
That Fearful and Mystic Vista
ton Of 0Ijen Days.
1T FOLLOWED III WARS WAKE.

In Three Ye=rs-Tae Psstiienes ~
London.
The plague or pcs...ruce. that mystic
rious and fearful visinuou which las
moved i.s hosts in the wake Of aruie.
10 sIay more than war i,self Is sup /
posed 90 have Grst originated among |
the dense masses az people wl7 crowd. |
ed together in the great cities ~ Asia |
and Egypt or who formed tie elcamp- /
ments Of Xegxes. Cyrus ana Tanner |
lane the Tartar. 1t probably spsanf |
from the impurity which must have |
existed I'm the midst Of such vast gath |
erings and in part also from leaving
the unburicl dead upon the field OF
battle. At any rate. the germs OF this
fearful human poison have always
been most active where conditions
similar 20 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
GA A. d.. when the returning legions
of the Emperor Justinian brought 1t
again into the western world from the
battlehelds Of Persia. Constantinople
was the first place 1t 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 il followed close in the wake of
the Frankish armies, and from Gaul
II 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
cd 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 theil
continuance, and these seem to have
eliminated in the fourteenth centur!
with what is known in history as thu
black death. The black death wa
more fatal to human life than an,
other single cause since the world be
gan. The havoc of war was nothing
In comparison to it. 1t swept tn
whole of Europe leaving in its pat
such misery and restitution as tn
world had never known. 1t killed i
three years some 100000 people
Such figures stagger the compreher
sion, but the records of the time car
not be doubted. The entire populatio
of Europe is estimated to have bee
about 1OO,OOOOOO, kept down as it wa
by the constant warfare, and of thes
at least a fourth perished.
The ravages of the plague in Ital.
where il came in the track of the wa
of the Guelphs and Ghibellines, wa
particularly disastrous TO mankind.
ragged with terrible fury in Maple
where 10000 persons are said to hay
died 1t fell upon Pisa, and seven OF
of every ten persisted. 1t utterly an
forever destroyed the prosperity
Siena. Florence also suffered severed
while 100000 of the inhabitants
Venice were literally wiped off Il
face of the earth. From Italy it move
into France, where the mortality w
almost as great. In Paris alone 500
people died from II. One of the wor
features presented by the history
the black death was the cruel perseC
ton IL aroused against the Jews. TIL
were supposed to have infected the {
in some mysterious manner, and tn
were accused OF having poisoned I
wells and springs. In Strassburg 90
OF them were buried alive in their oy
burial ground.
The order Of the Flagellanto arc
at this time, coming from the bel
that the sins Of the world had at ];
brought down the wrath of heaven.
was the beginning of the so call
hundred years war that carried
black death into England, where
London its victims numbered 1000
When at last the plague had work
dts ravages 1t doubled back over
course to disappear il. the cast Ia
on IL appeared again in Engla
first among the soldiers of Richmc
after the battle of Bosworth Fit
and when the victorious army marcl
TO London the plague went with til
60 work its havoc there. AS long as
lasted the mortality was as great
that caused by the black death hal
century before. Five thousand pee
died in five weeks and then the plat
left London as suddenly as 1t had
peared there 10 sweep over the rest
England.
In Scotland the plague of 156S CO
Immediately after the battle of Is
side. when Queen Mary was dethl