Year: 1878

FEW WORDS IN REGARD TO YELLOW


JACK FROM ONE WHO is THREATENED


BY IT.


To the Editor of the Rochester Democrat:


Sir: The enclosed extract from phi
vate letter just received from Louisiana,
may be of interest to your readers. The
writer resides on one of the large sugar
plantations that border on the Bayou
Teche, west of New Orleans. The
"Teche Country" contains some of the
most fertile land in the south. Nowhere
else in the United States is the yield of
sugar so abundant. 1t was to this region
that the Acadian refugees, whose sad
history furnished Longfellow with the
theme of his "Evangeline," were trans
ported by the British government, and
their descendants still form a consider
able elementof the population. w. A. S.


In many sections of the state where
there is no yellow fever, the malarial,
or swamp fever, prevails to such an ex-
tent that it is impossible for ordinary
work to go on. On our own plantation
alone, there are between thirty and
forty down with the latter disease.
For month past there has been a per-
feet panic through the whole country,
business is almost entirely suspended,
and the terrible scourge the only sub
jeet of conversation, all of which, of
course, only makes the matter worse,
and yet it cannot be wondered at, as
we think what ruin has been wrought
in years gone by. Scarcely house in
this beautiful Teche country but has
suffered from its ravages, and in many
instances whole families have been
swept away within a week. The dis
ease is always more fatal in the coun-
try than in New Orleans, because of in
ability to procure the necessary sup
plies and the lack of experienced doc
tors and nurses. A country patient
rarely survives after the third day. A
singular fact is that the fever has as
sumed somewhat different type each
year that it has become an epedemic,
so that doctors and nurses who may
have been successful at one time are
entirely baff1ed at another; measures
which gave relief in 1873 seem of little
or no avail now.


Two weeks ago there had not been
case between us and New Orleans,
eighty-fiv miles; last Friday there
"OiO ioui uOdoho it uuoi gan SiIlJ GNO
miles from us by air line, some of whom
were taken sick only the day before.
We have established strict quarantine
between our place and Morgan City,
but it is two long months before we
can expect any abatement of the dis
ease, if the material upon which it feeds
holds out. Every one at the south is
unacclimated until he has had the vel
low fever, and it rarely abates much so
long as any of that element is left.


We have had the kindest offers of as
sistance from gentlemen and their wives
who have had the disease, and, should
we be taken down, they will come to US
at once, doing all that nursing can do.
After tomorrow all boats on the Teche
will be stopped or forbidden to land at
Morgan City, measure which ought to
have been attended to long ago; and
which will add somewhat to our securi-
| ty. / must not close without applaud
| ing the generous action of the entire
north in giving so literally to the suf-
ferers in this time of need. Could they
hear the expressions of gratitude on
every hand, the spontaneous "God bless
tbem," from an entire community, and
realise the amount of distress alleviat-
ed, l am sure they would not withhold
their aid so long as the plague shall
last. Everyone here is doing his ut
most, but the people are poor and posi-
lively unable to meet the wants.