Elmore County Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1910-1915, 1915-01-16

| TWO men were required to go out an(
remove the corpses, and this mean
the probable sacrifice of their OWL
lives, for having performed the task
they were not to be permitted to re
enter the building. One of the pro
fessors, who was a bachelor, and one
Of the undergraduates volunteered
They bade good-by to us and went
forth They were heroes. They gave
up their lives that four hundred 9th.
ers might live. After they had per.
formed their work, they stood for q
moment, at a distance, looking at
us wistfully. They they waved Their
hands In farewell and went away
slowly across the campus toward the
burning city.
"And yet 1t was all useless. The
next morning the first one of us was
smitten with the plague-a little nurse
girl in the family or Professor Stout
It was no time for weakened, sentl
mental policies. On the chance that
she might be the only one, we thrust
her forth from the building and com,
manded her to be gone. She went away
slowly across the campus wringing
her hands and crying pitifully. Wa
felt like brutes, but what were we
to do? There were four hundred of
us, and individuals had to be sacri
feed.
In one of the laboratories three
families had domiciled themselves,
and that afternoon we found among
them no less than four corpses and
seven cases of the plague In all its
different stages.
Then it was that the horror began.
Leaving the dead lie, We forced the
living ones to segregate themselves
in another room. The plague began
to break out among the rest of US,
and as fast as the symptoms appeared,
we sent the stricken ones to these seq
regated rooms. We compelled them
to walk there by themselves, SC as
to avoid laying hands ON them. 1t
was heartrending. But still the
plague ragged among US, and room af-
ter room was filled with the dead and
dying. And so we who were yet clean
retreated to the next floor, and to the
next, before this sea of the dead, that,
room by room and floor by floor, in
undated the building.
THE place became charnel house,
and in the middle of the night the sur
vivors fled forth, taking nothing with
them except arms and ammunition and
a heavy store of timed foods. We
camped on the opposite side of the
campus from the providers, and while
some stood guard, others of US volun-
teered to scout into the city in quest
of horses, motor cars, carts and wag.
ons, or anything that would carry out
provisions and enable us to emulate
the banded workingmen ! had seen
fighting their way out to the open
country.
Il was one Of these scouts, and
Doctor Hoyle, remembering that his
motor car had been left behind in his
home garage, told me to look for it.
We secuted in pairs, and Dombey, a
young undergraduate, accompanied
me. We had to cross half mile of
the residence portion of the city to
get to Doctor Hoyle's home Here the
buildings stood apart, in the midst
Of trees and grassy lawns, and here
the fires had played freaks, burning
whole blocks, skipping blocks, and oft
en- skipping single house in block.
And here, too, the providers were still
1T their work We carried our auto
matte pistols openly in our hands, and
ookeI desperate enough, forsooth, to
Keep them from attacking US But at
Doctor Hoyle's house the thing hap
oened. Untouched by fire, even as we
,ame to 1t the smoke and flames burst
orth
THE miscreant who had set fire to
t staggered down the steps and out
long the driveway. Sticking out of
lis coat pockets were bottles of whis-
~, and he was very drunk. My
irst impulse was to shoot him, and
have never ceased regretting that |
lid not Staggering and Numbering
o himself, with bloodshot eyes and
aw and bleeding slash down one side
II his bewhiskered face, he was alto.
ether the most nauseating specimen
# degradation and filth l had ever
ncountered. did not shoot him, and
e leaned against tree on the lawn
o let us go by. 1t was the most alb
olute, wanton act Just as we were
pposite him, he suddenly drew a pis-
OIL and shot Dombey through the head
he next instant | shot him. But it
'as too late. Dombey expired with
ut a groan, Immediately. l doubt IL
q ever knew what had happened to
i'm.
Leaving the two corpses, I hurried
n past the burning house to the gar
&c, and there found Doctor Hoyle's
rotor car. The tanks were filed with
asoline, and it was ready for use.
nd 1t was in this car that | threaded
lie streets of the ruined city and came
ack to the survivors on the campus.
he other srOuts refurnad hut pono