THE PLAGUE IN MEMPHIS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 335, 19 September 1879, Page 17

THE PLAGUE IN MEMPHIS.

Memphis, July 20. —Throughout all of last night and to-day steady streams of people have been moving by every street, avenue and railway from the impending fever affliction now threatening this plague stricken city. It is stated that two thousand persons departed by the Louisville road alone, their baggage piled in high tiers extendJng from Main to beyond Second street on the company's platform. J hile there was no excitement, nor a stampede, such as prevailed when the people were startled by the first announcement that yellow fever had broken out, yet the crush was immense. To-day vehicles of every imaginable description have lined the highways, carrying people, baggage, household effects and (ftmp equipage to the country. Within forty-eight hours the only remaining inhabitants will be poverty-stricken people unable for lack of means to leave, negroes and white men occupying places which imperatively demand their presence. This exodus is in response to the announcement of the press and authorities that they will not be fed or nursed if sick, and that their lives depend on an immediate evacuation. Should the fever demon spread over the city, it will find an appetizing repast, as the poor unable to go away outnumber those who remained last year. Many have fled who went through the scourge of 1878, and who are deemed safe from another attack, having suffered and recovered. They say they have no desire to witness a repetition of the trials, hardships and death scenes which they were compelled to experience last season. In spite of the most urgent appeals from the authorities that flight is the only safeguard, and depopulation the only way to check the monster's ravages, it will be impossible to reduce the population below ten thousand. All property owners, and nearly all leading officials, have gone on or are going away. Some twenty of our heaviest merchants are moving their stock to St. Louis and Cincinati. there to re-open and continue business until November. A dull, dreary, and lonesome time is in prospect for all who remain. Many business houses closed last night, and will not re-open until cold weather sets in,

Leading physicians express the opinion that there will not be much more sickness, c|flng to the lack of material to feed on. Whole streets are deserted, and stores of all kinds, from wholesale business houses to saloon and cigar shops, closed. About six hundred tons of sugar, molasses, bacon and other supplies were shipped North on Monday night by merchants who intend to open branch houses at St. Louis. One sad incident is reported. The wife of Dr. J. C. Harris, who died Monday morning after an illness of less than four days, returned to the city with her infant babe, and she did not learn of her husband's death until she was a few yards from her home, in Wellington street, near the Hernando road. Upon the sad news being imparted, Mrs. Harris fainted. She was placed in charge of friends, and will doubtless leave here for a more healthy place. It is stated that Dr. Harris was robbed of a gold watch and a pocketbook with a few dollars in it a short time before his death, but while perfectly conscious, though weak, and tn a condition so helpless as to be able to offer no resistance. It is also said that the doctor's death was due more to bungling and careless nursing than to any other cause.