'YELLOW JACK' AND HIS HORRORS

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 39, 28 September 1905, Page 5

'YELLOW JACK' AND HIS HORRORS

A GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION

4 The death of the Most Rev. Dr. Ohapelle, Archbishop of New: Orleans and Apoatolic-Delegate to Cuba and Porto Rico, from am attack of yellow fever has again •directed piibMo a/ttenttm to the terrible ravages of that fearful scomrge, and to which reference is made in our editorial columns. The following account of a visitation of this terrible pestilence, taken from an American contemporary, will give some idea of the terror which it inpsires :— The moment the 'Yellow Flag' appears, there is a wild rush for trains northbound— anywhere— beyond the pestilent bireatb, The ceaseless tramp of hurrying feet sounds through all the day and through the night. Barracks, army, posts, are deserted, for 'tis not) cowardice even in soldiers to flee madly from • Yellow Jack.' At this time, too, devoted ministers instruct us concerning! their consuming desire to remain and die among their afflicted flock, but alaa ! stern duty to wife and children tear them away northward. Southern people need no theological disquisitions aa to the utility and desirability of a celibate clergy, who in time of danger and death, need not ' study the things that pleasetha wife.' Every State, town, and county and evth every track through the densest woods, has its armed guards to warn back every venturesome refugee who seeks to escape from tue blight and infection. Every train, is stepped, and searched, inside the cities, every dioor'is looked, every window closed and fastened tight, despite intensest heat, and suffering for food and even craving a drink of water. These Panic-stricken Refugees are thus herded and jammed into an inferno, reeking with foul air, whilst the thoughtless or desperate one that dares open a window or stand on a platform has 'a shot-gun pointed at him, with gruff but convincing orders to 'got; inside and close that window.' Nor are any words wasted,, for the gun speaks the next word and closes' the argument forever. Even the engineers and crews are changed, before the train can come nmr & town, and strict are the orders to steam through at a lively speed. Nor can mail or goods be thrown off ; all must go to the disinfecting station, to be perforated and perfumed with vile-smelling acids which no self-respecting microbe would stand. Many a death results from the alleged necessary quarantine regulations, with shot-gun backing. But the individual must suffer to save the general public. I remember, walking evenings along the noble government street, Mobile, in company with Father Coyle, the present pastor of Birmingham, Ala. As he is exceptionally rich in philosophic and poetic lore, we easily forgot the sights and sorrows of the day, as we argued pro and con of Plato, Aristotle, and the others, till at the head' of a street, a rifle gleamed in the arc-light, and a by>-no-means courteous nor gcmtle voice rudely shattered our classic dreamings with ' Get back, get back there lively now.' But we got back all right, nor stood on the order of our going. Whien the fever is discovered in a house, immediately a yellow flag is nailed at the main door, and a guard stationed at the gate, armed. Whoso enters is warned that he must stay in until ten days after the official recovery or death of the latest case in the house. Groceries and medicines are flung in through a window or door. How heart-breaking when the father or mother comes from their work in the even/ing time, sees the yellow flag over their home, and can only lean over the fence to inquire haw tfhe loved sufferer is, for if the bread-winner enters, be can no longer go forth to earn bteaJd for tfto little ones in the stricken nast. VAnd men must work and women must weep—so good-by to the bar and' its moaning«. No Funeral Processions or Hearses are allowed, only those absolutely needed to carry the body a-ndi bury it are permitted to accompany the dearest dead. Nor are any services allowed in the churches ; the priest reads the service in the house of pestilence and death. 1 have seen the priest himself buried, without! being taken -to the church next door, where he said Masa and heard confessions three daysi before. I have secfci the lonely orphan boy of ten, digging Ms mother's gtraive, and resting and weeping on the still fregh earth that covered his father. One of the memories that shall never leave me is that Of ttifc illness and death of Father Murray,, 'one of the most brilliant and devoted young priests I had ever the Messing to know. But five years ordained, he had just arranged to vislit his dear old mother in 'Ire-

land. He came first to see his esteemed friend, VicarGenerai O'Oallaghan. of Mobile. Whilst there the fever broke out,, and though advised and urged that he was not \u (duty bound to sstary r still the nobility of selfsacrifice constrained' this zealoms priest to remain with an' afflicted' people. Day and night he spent himself in an unwearying round of charity, till having saM Mass one Sunday with the fever's grip upon him, he was assisted from the altar to his death-bed.- During all the delirium, of the raging fever that burned o-* his young life, he spoke to bis dear old mother. Round that lowly, bed our hearts bled for her, who was ■watching each ship for the boy who would return no more. A fewpriests in utter sorrow wrapped his lifeless but still warm body in the Mass -vestments he had worn btat three days before. What a precious memory is that of the Sisters' of Charity in these days that tried men's soub ! On every, train coming south rushed these angels of the earth*, tot do and die among the afflicted. Prom ward to ward of choked and crowded hospitals, soothing the feverracked brow of the stricken, or pillowing the head of the dying,, or lifting the motherless child from the broken heart of the dead, or again the fitful gleam of the barn-yard lantern, lighting up the white bonnet as it hurries among the fever tents, out in the hospital yard writungi a Hast letter of good-bye to some far-away sadeyed mother, or helping the over-worked priest in his services to dying and dead— all this is a memory precious and dear, rendering useless tana empty all the praise that mortal tonigue can ever give to the Sisters of Charity.

Whilst the Catholic Church can point to her Sisters of Charity,. o<r to the hut in the wilderness where the first ablfoot of Alabama nursed the Methodist preacher dug Ms grave, and carried him to it in his own arms, while the shot-gam guards menaced him with death or to Father Lane stealing through the night, aw a y from his devoted friends, to -get tack among the afflicted ones of hisj flock, or to the seven graves- in a row where rest forever those hero priests who one after another came to live a short week and die among the fever-stricken, or (o the many graves of gentle nuns who fell before the pest— in one place a whole convent of nuns died one after another— and there were generous Mol'untoers to fill uip the ranks, never, never has the Catholic Ctiuxch called in vain for priests and nuns, to die in tJfoe service of afflicted humanity— and whilst she can point to this glorious fact, she needs no defence against calumny, no arguments as to her Divine mission.