A PLAGUE-STRICKEN CITY.
By Editor
An esteemed contemporary, published in London, Eng., has the following letter from a resident in Hamburg, during the recent cholera epidemic, which will give our readers something of an idea as to what a plague-stricken city is. We quote as follows:— We have received a letter dated September 7, from Brother Boettcher, in Hamburg, which presents quite a vivid picture of the condition of things in that city on account of the cholera plague. After speaking of the courage in the Lord, which they have in their work, he says:— “Many times it has been stated that only the poorer classes are affected by this plague, but the experience in Hamburg has proved that rich and poor, high and low, are taken alike. It matters not where they are, on the streets or in their homes, in the saloons or in the palace. Day before yesterday I called on a man who used to come to our meetings, and upon inquiring of his welfare he replied, ‘My wife will be taken to the hospital in a few minutes, and I am closing up my books, for I do not know how soon I must share an equal fate.’ That is about the way Hamburgers feel in general. There is hardly any business going on. . . . I had thought that nothing could sober down the Hamburgs, but this has. One doesn’t hear any music on the streets, neither are there any concerts in the beer gardens; theaters and circuses have stopped. Up to yesterday over six thousand have died, and there has not been much of a decrease since it started. “The dead are not placed in coffins, but are simply wrapped up in sheets and placed on boards, and put into wagons. They have used old bread wagons, moving wagons, etc., to transport the dead. To carry away the sick they use old cabs, about eighty in number. These are kept running to and fro the whole time. The most of those carried away die. A man and a woman were taken out of the house in which we live; both have died. Many sick and dead have been carried away from our neighborhood. In the beginning the dead were buried between twelve and two at night, but at present they employ men during the day also. Two hundred men are employed digging graves. The poor are in great distress because of all this, and because of lack of work.”