Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-07-06

Sit down, Edwin counseled soothngly. Gran
sers all right. He's just gcttin to the Scarlet Death,
amt you, Granser? He's just gon to tell us about
it right now. Sit down, Hare-Lp. Go ahead,
Granser."
The old man wiped the tears away on his grmy
knuckes and took up the tale in a tremulous, piping
voice that soon strengthened as he got the swing of
the narrative.
1t was in the summer OF 2oI5 that the Plague
came. was twenty-seven years old, and well do |
remember it. Wireless dispatches
Hare-Lp spat loudly his disgust, and Granser
hastened to make amends.
We talked through the air in those days, thou
sands and thousands of miles. And the word came
of a strange disease that had broken out in New
York. There were seventeen millions Of people liv-
ing then in that noblest city OF America. Nobody
thought anything about the news 1t was only a
small thing There had been only few deaths 1t
seemed though, that they had died very quickly and
that of the first signs of the disease was the turn
ing red of the face and all the body Within twenty
four hours came the report of the first case in
Chicago And on the same day it was made public
that London the greatest city in the world next to
Chicago had been secretly fighting the plague for
two weeks and Censoring the news dispatChes-that
is not permitting the word to go forth to the rest of
the world that London had the plague.
1T looked serious, but we in California, like
that the psychologists would find a way to over
come this new germ just as they had overcome other
germs in the past. But the trouble was the aston
ishing quiCkness with which this germ DESTROYED
human beings, and the fact that it inevitably killed
any human body it entered. No one ever recovered
There was the old Asiatic cholera when you might
eat dinner with well man in the evening, and the
next morning, if you got up early enough you would
see him being hauled by your window in the death
DIT lry IL,
much quicker. From the moment of the first signs
of it, a man would be dead in an hour Some lasted
for several hours. Many died within ten or fifteen
minutes of the appearance OF the first sign.
The heart began to beat faster and the heat Of
the body to increase. Then came the scarlet rash
spreading like wdire over the face and body
Most persons never noticed the increase in heat and
heartbeat, and the first they knew was when the
scarlet rash came out. Usually, they had Convu-
sons at the time of the appearance of the rash But
these commissions did not last long and were not very
severe. If one lived through them, he became per
fecty quiet and only did he feel numbness swiftly
creeping up his body from the feet. The heels be
came numb first then the legs, and hips, and when
the numbness reached as high as his heart he died
They did not rave or sleep. Their minds always re
NAMED cool and calm up to the moment their heart
numbed and stopped. And another strange
thing was the rapidity of decomposition.
No sooner was person dead than the
body seemed to fall to pieces, to fly
apart, to melt away even as you
looked at it. That was one Of
the reasons the plague spread so
rapidly. All the
~ Ill billions of germs in
:. MI a corpse were so i'm
" mediatelv released.
MVf&Iz And it was be-
AVEk cause Of all this