The Washington herald., 1914-05-03

depopulated the earth. with a few ex-
ceptions, widely scattered, recounts to
through which he passed during those
fearful days. 1t Is now 207S- and man
kind has relapsed into barbarism. His
savage grandsons regard his story as
a figment due to seniiity, but despite his
age the old mans memory does not
falter. He goes into all the details of the
terrible event with a descriptive charm
which compels them to listen and be-
Heye.)
= SSATEw YORK CITY and Chicago
IN were in chaos. And what hap
pened with them was happening
in all the large cities. A third of the
New York police were dead. Their chief
was also dead. likewise the mayor. All
law and order had ceased. The bodies
were lying in the streets unburied. All
railroads and vessels carrying food ana
such things into the great city had
ceased running, and mobs OF the hungry
poor were pillaging the stores and ware
houses. Murder and robbery and drunk
enness were everywhere. Already the
people had fed from the city by millions
at first the rich. in their private motor
cars and dirigibles, and then the great
mass of the population. on foot, carry
ing the plague with them. themselves
starving and piIlaging the farmers and
all the towns and villages on the way.
THE man who sent this news, the
wireless operator. wass alone with his
instruments on the top of a lofty build
ing. The people remaining in the city
: he estimated them at several hundred
thousand-had gone mad from fear and
drink. and on all sides of him great fires
were raging He was a hero. that man
who staid by his post-an obscure news
paper man, most likely.
For twenty-four hours. he said, no
transatlantic airships had arrived, and
no more messages were coming from
Esgland. He did state, though, that
message from Berlin-thats in Germany
announced that Hoffmeyer, a bacterio-
logist of the Metchnikoff school, had dis
covered the serum for the plague. That
was the last word. to this day. that we
of America ever received from Europe.
II Honmeyer discovered the serum, II
was too late. or. otherwise, long ere this,
explorers from Europe would have come
looking for US. We can only conclude
that what happened in America happened
in Europe, and that, at the best. some
several score may have survived the
Scarlet Death on that whole continent
For one day longer the dispatches con-
tinued to come from New York. Then
they, too. ceased. The man who had sent
them, perched in his lofty building. had
either died of the plague or been con-
sumed in the great conhagration he had
described as raging around him. And
what had occurred in New York had been
duplicated in all the other cities 1t was
the same in San Francisco and Oakland
and Berkeley. BY Thursday the people
were dying so rapidly that their corpses
could not be handled, and dead bodies
lay everywhere. Thursday night the panic
outrush for the country began. Imagine,
my grandsens. people, thicker than the
salnon-Tun you have seen on the Sacra-
mento River. pouring out Of the cities by
millions madly over the country, In vain
attempt to escape the ubiquitous death.
You see, they carried the germs with
them. Even the airships of the rich, flee
ing for mountain and desert Businesses,
carried the germs
Hundreds Of these airships escaped to
Hawaii. and not only did they bring the
plague with them. but they found the
plague already there before them. This
We learned by the dispatches. until all
! order in San Francisco vanished, and
; there were no operators left at their
q: POSTS to receive or send 1t was amazing,
astounding, this loss Of communication
with the world 1t was exactly as II the
. world had ceased. been blotted out For
sixty years that world has no longer ex-
listed for me. I know there must be such
: places as New York, Europe, Asia and
Africa; but not one word has been heard
of them-not in sixty years. With the
coming of the Scarlet Death the world
fell apart, absolutely irretrievably. Ten
thousand years OF culture and civiliza-
tion passed in the twinkling Of an eye
'Iapsed like foam
Il was telling about the airships OF the
rich. They carried the plague with
them, and no matter where they fed,
they died. / never encountered but one
survivor of any of them-Mungerson. He
was afterward at Santa Rosa, and he
-
into the tribe eight years after the
plague He was then nineteen years old.
and he was compelled to wait twelve
years more before he could marry. You
see, there were no unmarried women,
and some of the older daughters of the
Santa Rosans were already bespoken. So
he was forced to wait until my Mary
had grown to sixteen years. II was his
son. Gimp-Leg. who was killed last year
by the mountain lion.
"Mungerson was eleven years old at the
time of the plague. His father was one
Of the Industrial Magnates. a very
wealthy, powerful man. 1t was on his
airship. the Condor. that they were fee
ing. with all the family, for the wilds of
British Columbia. which is far to the
north Of here. But there was some ac-
cident, and they were wrecked near Mt. |
Shasta. You have heard of that noun
tain. 1t is far to the north The plague
broke out among them, and this boy of /
eleven was the only survivor. For eight |
years he was alone, wandering over a
deserted land looking vainIy for his own
kind. And at last. travelling south, he |
picked UP with us, the Santa Rosans. |
But 1 am ahead of my story. When |
the great exodus from the cities around
San Francisco Bay began. and while the |
telephones were still working, I talked
with my brother. / told him this flight |
from the cities was insanity. that there |
were no symptoms of the plague In me, |
and that the thing for US to do was to |
isolate ourselves and our relatives in |
some safe place. We decided on tho |
Chemistry Building. at the university, |
and we planned to lay in a supply Of
provisions, and by force of arms to pre-
vent any other persons from forcing |
their presence upon US after We had re-
tired to our refuge
'.Au this being arranged, my brother
begged me to stay in my own house for /
az least twenty-four hours more, on the /
chance of the plague developing in me. |
To this / agreed. and he promised to /
come for me next day. We talked on
over the details Of the provisioning and /
the defending of the Chemistry Building |
until the telephone died. 1t died in the |
midst OF our conversation. That evening
there were no electric lights, and l was
alone in my house In the darkness. No
more newspapers were being printed, so
I had no knowledge of what was taking \
place outside. 1 heard sounds OF rioting /