"Fielding, Richardson, and Scott occupied pedestals. In a niche wasdeposited the bust of our countryman, the author of 'Arthur Mervyn.'"
Nathaniel Hawthorne.
PHILADELPHIA:
DAVID McKAY, PUBLISHER,
23 South Ninth Street.
1889.
The evils of pestilence by which this city has lately been afflictedwill probably form an era in its history. The schemes of reformation andimprovement to which they will give birth, or, if no efforts of humanwisdom can avail to avert the periodical visitations of this calamity,the change in manners and population which they will produce, will be,in the highest degree, memorable. They have already supplied new andcopious materials for reflection to the physician and the politicaleconomist. They have not been less fertile of instruction to the moralobserver, to whom they have furnished new displays of the influence ofhuman passions and motives.
Amidst the medical and political discussions which are now afloat in thecommunity relative to this topic, the author of these remarks hasventured to methodize his own reflections, and to weave into an humblenarrative such incidents as appeared to him most instructive andremarkable among those which came within the sphere of his ownobservation. It is every one's duty to profit by all opportunities ofinculcating on mankind the lessons of justice and humanity. Theinfluences of hope and fear, the trials of fortitude and constancy,which took place in this city in the autumn of 1793, have, perhaps,never been exceeded in any age. It is but just to snatch some of thesefrom oblivion, and to deliver to posterity a brief but faithful sketchof the condition of this metropolis during that calamitous period. Menonly require to be made acquainted with distress for their compassionand their charity to be awakened. He that depicts, in lively colours,the evils of disease and poverty, performs an eminent service to thesufferers, by calling forth benevolence in those who are able to affordrelief; and he who portrays examples of disinterestedness andintrepidity confers on virtue the notoriety and homage that are due toit, and rouses in the spectators the spirit of salutary emulation.
In the following tale a particular series of adventures is brought to aclose; but these are necessarily connected with the events whichhappened subsequent to the period here described. These events are notless memorable than those which form the subject of the present volume,and may hereafter be published, either separately or in addition tothis.
C.B.B.
I was resident in this city during the year 1793. Many motivescontributed to detain me, though departure was easy and commodious, andmy friends were generally solicitous for me to go. It is not my purposeto enumerate these motives, or to dwell on my present concerns andtransactions, but merely to compose a narrative of some incidents withwhich my situation made me acquainted.
Returning one evening, somewhat later than usual, to my own house, myattention was attracted, just as I entered the porch, by the figure of aman reclining against the wall at a few paces distant. My sight wasimperfectly assisted by a far-off lamp; but the posture in which he sat,the hour, and the place, immediately suggested the idea of one disabledby sickness. It was obvious to conclude that his disease waspestilential. This did not deter me from approaching and e