round Cape Horn; and multitudes took the Panama route. The tens of thousands who thus went, having no other object than to get gold, had neither means nor inclination to grow their own food nor to manufacture their own necessaries; and hence arose a field of enterprise which the commercial world did not neglect. Valuable cargoes were dispatched to San Francisco to be there sold in exchange for gold dust, and that place in time became a populous, busy, thriving city, distinguished also for reckless speculation, fabulous prices for real estate, excesses of all kinds, and disastrous conflagrations. During one week in 1850, gold dust to the value of three million dollars was shipped and exported from San Francisco. In August of the same year the monthly shipment had reached about eight million dollars. On September 15, 1850, there were in that port six hundred and eighty-four vessels, belonging to twenty-one different nations; some of these vessels, small in size, had crossed the whole breadth of the Pacific from Australia and New Zealand, to exchange their produce for gold dust. In the first two weeks of October, in the same year, ninety-four vessels arrived at San Francisco, not including the regular steamers.

But the most strange and wonderful spectacle of all, was that exhibited by the money-diggers at their avocation. Men with long-handled shovels delved among clumps of bushes, or by the side of large rocks, never raising their eyes for an instant; others, with pick and shovel,

worked among stone and gravel, or with trowels searched under banks and roots of trees, where, if rewarded with small lumps of gold, their eyes suddenly kindled with pleasure, and the search was more intently pursued. In the water, knee, or even waist deep, regardless of the shivering cold, others were washing the soil in the tin pans or the common cradle rocker, whilst the sun poured a hot flood upon their heads. The common rocking machine for separating the gold was at first in great demand, but this was soon superseded by a cradle of ingenious construction; then came crushing mills, of various kinds, for pounding the auriferous quartz; and in time, machinery of the most effective adaptability was universally introduced. This operated powerfully to regulate mining operations, and to give order and stability to affairs generally throughout the territory. the territory. Society assumed the most. advanced organization, churches everywhere dotted the land, education was fostered, and the political institutions of the country patterned after those of the older states. Agricultural, industrial, and commercial pursuits were entered upon largely and with great success; California was admitted as a state into the Union in 1850; and in only ten years from Marshall's curious and accidental discovery of gold at Sutter's mill, in 1848, the gold product of California had reached a total of six hundred million dollars, and the population had increased from between twenty and thirty thousand souls to six hundred thousand!

though the mortality was much less extensive than previously, the panic was even sharper,--the city south of the park being fenced off and nearly deserted, families, merchants, banks, and even the city government removing to a distance. But in 1833-5, the disease was far more virulent.

In 1832, the Asiatic cholera, or cholera asphyxia, made its appearance in the United States for the first time, coming by way of Canada. Following the course of the large rivers, it soon reached Buffalo, and then spread irregularly, occurring in towns and cities at distances from each other, without affecting intervening districts till a subsequent period. In the city of New York, it appeared June 27th, and continued two months, during which period there were three thousand four hundred deaths. In Albany, it showed itself at the same time as in New York; and while its fury was abating in the latter place, it began to appear in its most formidable shape in Philadelphia, and in a few weeks a thousand fell victims. About the same mortality occurred in Baltimore and Washington, which cities the contagion soon reached. It commenced in Cincinnati in July, became epidemic in September, and continued through most of the summer of 1833. In the southern states, it made great havoc amongst the slave population, who fell ready and easy subjects of its power. Fatal, beyond all precedent, was the malady, in New Orleans and St. Louis. The middle states never before knew so terrible a visitation.

From the north, the disease also extended itself along the borders of the great lakes, and soon its ravages began at Detroit. The six eastern states escaped with only a few cases, principally in the port towns of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.

And now again, this awful scourge reappeared, in 1849, to blast the land with death on every side, carrying terror to every home and heart, and sweeping tens of thousands into the grave. In New Orleans, it broke out about the middle of

the winter. So frightful were its devastations, that it is estimated to have decimated the inhabitants that remained in some wards of the city. The raging pestilence appeared in New York in May, and, so violent was its spread, that during the week ending July 21st, more than seven hundred deaths occurred; the mortality that week was the greatest that had ever taken place in any city in the United States, the deaths by all diseases numbering more than fourteen hundred. In Boston, the deaths from cholera, during June, July, August, and September, were rising six hundred. But it was far more terrible in Cincinnati and St. Louis, the victims in each of these cities being upwards of six thousand. Over all the middle and western states, this Angel of Death spread his destroying wings, and in many parts of New England. The third day of August, 1849, was, in view of the terrible scourge thus stalking mightily over the broad land, appointed by the president of the United States as a day of fasting and prayer, that God would "avert the pestilence that walketh in darkness and the destruction that wasteth at noonday."

Again, in 1853, terror and panic seized the land, from another visitation of the yellow fever or plague. It spent its chief force upon that oft-doomed city, New Orleans, where, in the short space of three months, ten per cent. of the whole population fell victims.

Concerning the origin, or producing causes, of these epidemics, authorities have differed so widely, that little of a conclusive character, on these points, can be presented; and the same may be said respecting the modes of treatment. Much, however, that is interesting as well as profitable, relative to these awful visitations, may be learned from the various phenomena and incidents that accompa nied them.

In no other place, perhaps, were the manifestations and effects of a deathly epidemic upon human conduct exhibited more strikingly than in the city of Phila

Carey, the historian of that period, most of the inhabitants who could, by any means, make it convenient, fled from the city. Of those who remained, many shut themselves up in their houses, being afraid to walk the streets. The smoke of tobacco being regarded as a preventive, many persons, even women and small boys, had segars almost constantly in their mouths. Others, placing full confidence in garlic, chewed it almost the whole day; some kept it in their pockets and shoes. Many

burned tobacco, sprinkled vinegar, etc. Churches, libraries, and other places of public resort, were closed. Those persons who ventured abroad had handkerchiefs, or sponges, impregnated with vinegar or camphor, at their noses; some had smelling bottles full of thieves' vinegar. Others carried pieces of tarred rope in their hands and pockets, also camphor bags tied around their necks. The corpses of the most respectable citizens, even of those who had not died of the epidemic, were carried to

the grave on the shafts of a chair, the horse driven by a negro, unattended by a friend or relation, and without any sort of ceremony. People uniformly and hastily shifted their course at the sight of a hearse coming towards them. Many never walked on the foot-path, but went in the middle of the streets, to avoid being infected in passing houses wherein people had died. Acquaintances and friends avoided each other in the streets, and only signified their regard by a cold nod. The old custom of shaking hands fell into such general disuse, that many recoiled with affright at even the offer of a hand. A person wearing crape, or having any other appearance of mourning, was shunned like a viper; and many congratulated themselves highly on the skill and address with which they got to windward of every person whom they met. When, too, the citizens, summoning sufficient resolution, walked abroad to take the air, the sight of the sick-cart conveying patients to the hospital, or the hearse carrying the dead to the grave, which were traveling almost the whole day,-soon damped their spirits, and caused them to retrace their steps and seek seclusion. These manifestations and characteristics prevailed alike during the yellow fever and the cholera. Consternation was carried beyond all carried beyond all bounds. Men of affluent fortunes were abandoned to the care of any stranger, black or white, who could by entreaty be procured. In some cases, no money or influence could procure proper attendance. With the poor, the case was, of course, immeasurably worse than with the rich. Many of them perished, without a human. being to hand them a drink of water, or to perform any medical or charitable office.

Some of the horrible and heart-rending occurrences, which transpired during these visitations of yellow fever and cholera, will suffice better than any discussions of symptoms and treatment, or any mere general representations of the public terror and panic, to show the nature of the calamities that thus swept over the land, carrying desolation and anguish to so

many happy homes. The following are some of the instances referred to, as related by Carey, Simpson, and others.

An old grave digger, named Sebastian, who had long lost the sense of smelling, fancied he could not take the disorder, and therefore followed his business without apprehension. A husband and his wife, who lay sick together, wished to be interred in the same grave. Their deaths happened within a few days of each other. When the latter of the two was to be buried, Sebastian was employed to dig open the other's grave. He struck upon and broke the coffin, and in stooping down, inhaled such an intolerable and deadly stench, that he was taken sick immediately, and in a day or two died.

A man and his wife, once in affluent circumstances, were found lying dead in bed, and between them was their child, a little infant, who was sucking its mother's breast. How long they had lain thus, was uncertain.

Peculiar in its sadness, was the case of a woman, whose husband had just died of the disease; she was seized with the pains of parturition, and had nobody to assist. her, as the women in the neighborhood were afraid to go into the house. She lay, for a considerable time, in a condition of anguish truly indescribable; at length, she struggled to reach the window, and cried out for assistance. Two men, passing by, went up stairs; but they came at too late a stage-for she was even then striving with death-and actually, in a few minutes, expired in their arms. Another woman, whose husband and two children lay dead in the room with her, was in the same situation as that of the woman just described,-without a midwife, or any other person to aid her. Her cries at the window brought up one of the carters employed for the relief of the sick. With his assistance she was delivered of a child, which died in a few minutes, as did the mother, who was utterly exhausted by her labor, on account of the disorder, and by the dreadful spectacle before her. And thus lay, in one room,