The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1921-09-15
SOME RAMBLING
"REMINISCENCES
(By E. B. Tabor. of the Earlville,
H., Leader.)

About twenty-five years ago,
down in Mississippi jew named
clip" Weiss travelled for the New
Orleans Picayune, soliciting sub
scribers, collecting subscriptions
and sending in items of interest
to the paper. clip" as he was
universally called was good deal
of wit and the very soul OF gooo
nature.
During several years of our resi-
dence there, it being before the
days when Gen. GorgaS had dis
covered that yellow fever IS
caused or carried by mosquitoes.
there were epidemics of the dis
ease in certain parts of the state,
and for months practically all
traffic was halted. No one was al
lowed to travel without permit
issued by a regularly appointed
health officer, the mails were held
up and no papers were received
for weeks at at time. Letters were
forwarded after having been per-
forated with scores of small holes
and "fumigated" by being heated
in a big drum of formaldehyde..
For weeks we issued our week
lv newspaper with absolutely no
news from the outside. only local
happenings being given, such as
could be picked UP or secured by
telephone. When the supply OF
white paper ran out, colored Q0s-
ter paper was used, so the paper
would be blue one week, pink the
next and as a last resort, it was
printed on yellow poster paper
a very appropriate shade in yellow
fever times.
We were allowed to go to the
small interior towns In the c0un-
try by horse and buggy, as there
was no infection in the interior
but were not allowed to travel on
the railroad, only mail train be-
ING run once day.
So each week after prlntnr the
paper which consisted OF tour
pages, we hitched the pony to- the
buggy and carried the news TO the
interior towns. Maybe you don't
believe it. but that paper was, the
most welcomed publication those
people ever received for 1t was all
the paper they got during, the
week. Once we made 1t up almost
entirel-- from the lies of paper
printed in the town nearly flfty
years previously before the war.
1t was made up of "Old time
Items" and no mistake and several
remarked that it was one of the
most interesting issues ever got
ten out. /.
But we have gotten ahead of
our story. After one yellow fever
quarantine "Clip" Weiss came
around again on his pilgrimage
and someone jokingly inquired; !;
"Clip," what did you take for yell
low fever?" Quick as a flash came
the reply: II took the Mobile and
Ohio" The one th0uGht seemed 10
be 90 get away. Families fled TO
the north when they could and
those who could not go for lack of
means or for other causes, "refu-
geed" I'M the pine woods. They
would peak bedding and cooking
utensils on a wagon and with a
cook and few trusty servants,
would bury themselves I'M the
depths of the pine forest. And you
have no idea how far into the pine
woods one could go quarter of a
century ago before the big mills
came to literally cut up the big
trees. There they staid for weeks
until cool weather put an end to
the epidemic and the scare. Since
the discovery of the source of yell
low fever and the determination
of the disease-carrying mosqul-
toes, there has been none of this
trouble and for twenty years or
more the south has been free from
the scourge that carried off thous-
ands.
While there were no cases in the
little town of Brandon during our
residence there, it had been scour-