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CHAPTER VIII.

Repeated Addresses of the Committee on the Purification of Houses. Assistant Committee undertake to inspect infected houses personally. Extinction of the Disorder. Governor's Proclamation. Address of the Clergy. A new and happy state of affairs.

THE Committee exerted its cares for the welfare of the citizens in all cases in which its interference was at all proper or necessary. The decline of the disorder induced many persons to return to the city at an earlier period, than prudence dictated. On the 26th of October, therefore, the Committee addressed their fellow citizens, congratulating them on the very flattering change that had taken place, which afforded a cheering prospect of being soon freed from the disorder entirely. They, however, recommended to those who were absent, not to return till the intervention of cold weather, or rain should render such a step justifiable and proper, by totally extinguishing the disease.

The 29th, they published another address, earnestly exhorting those whose houses had been closed, to have them well aired and purified; to throw lime into the privies, &c.

The 4th of November, they again addressed the public, announcing that it was unsafe for those who had resided in the country, to return to town with too much precipitation, especially into houses not properly prepared. They added, that though the disorder had considerably abated, and though there was reason to hope it would shortly disappear, yet it was by no means totally eradicated; as there was reason to believe it still lurked in different parts of the city. They reiterated their representations on the subject of cleansing houses.

The 14th, they once more addressed their fellow citizens, informing them of the restoration to our long-afflicted city, of as great a degree of health as usually prevails at the same season; of no new cases of the malignant fever having occurred for many days; of their having reason to hope that in a few days not a vestige of it would remain in the city or suburbs; of applications for admission into the hospital having ceased; of the

* I shall in some of the following pages attempt to prove, that the idea here held out, so far as regards rain, was erroneous.

expectation of the physicians at the hospital, that no more than three or four would die out of ninety-one persons remaining there; of the number of convalescents increasing daily. They at the same time most earnestly recommended that houses in which the disorder had prevailed, should be purified; and that the clothing or bedding of the sick, more especially of those who had died of the disorder, should be washed, baked, buried, or destroyed. They added, that the absent citizens of Philadelphia, as well as those strangers who have business in the city, might safely come to it, without fear of the disorder.

Notwithstanding all these cautions, many persons returned from the country, without paying attention to the cleansing of their houses, thereby sporting not only with their own lives, but with the safety of their fellow citizens. The neglect of some persons in this way, has been so flagrant, as to merit severe punishment. This dangerous nuisance attracted the notice of the Committee; and after a conference with the assistant committee, they, on the 15th of November, in conjunction with them, resolved, that it was highly expedient to have all houses and stores in the city and liberties, wherein the malignant fever had prevailed, purified and cleansed as speedily and completely as possible; to have all those well aired, which had been closed for any length of time; to have lime thrown into the privies; to call in, when the district should be too large for the members to enforce compliance with those resolves, such assistants as might be necessary; and when any person, whose house required to be cleansed, and who was able to defray the expense thereof, should refuse or neglect to comply with the requisition of the members appointed to carry those resolves into effect, to report him to the next grand jury for the city and county, as supporting a nuisance dangerous to the public welfare. The assistant committee undertook to exert themselves to have these salutary plans put into execution; they have gone through the city and liberties for the purpose; and in most cases have found a readiness in the inhabitants to comply with a requisition of such importance.*

The utmost exertions of the magistrates, and of the citizens generally, are necessary to guard against the deplorable consequences that may arise in the spring from the neglect of a few whose supineness renders them deaf to every call of duty in this respect. The beds secreted by some of the nurses who attended the sick, are likewise a fruitful source of danger, and demand the greatest vigilance from every person invested with authority to watch over the public safety.

This was the last act of the Committee that requires notice. Their business has since gone on in a regular, uniform train, every day like the preceding one. They are now (Nov. 30,) settling their accounts, and preparing to surrender up their trust, into the hands of a town meeting of their fellow citizens, the constituents by whom they were called into the responsible office they have filled. To them they will give an account of their stewardship, in a time of distress, the like of which heaven avert from the people of America for ever. Doubtless, a candid construction will be put upon their conduct, and it will be believed, that they have acted in every case that came under their cognizance, according to the best of their abilities.

On the 14th of November, governor Mifflin published a proclamation, announcing, that as it had pleased Almighty God to put an end to the grievous calamity which recently afflicted. the city of Philadelphia, it was the duty of all who were truly sensible of the divine mercy, to employ the earliest moments of returning health, in devout expressions of penitence, submission, and gratitude. He therefore appointed Thursday, the 12th of December,* as a day of general humiliation, thanksgiving, and prayer, and earnestly exhorted and intreated his fellow citizens "to abstain, on that day, from all worldly avocations, and to unite in confessing, with contrite hearts, their manifold sins and transgressions-in acknowledging, with thankful adoration, the mercy and goodness of the Supreme Ruler of the universe, more especially manifested in the late deliverance; and in praying, with solemn zeal, that the same mighty power would be graciously pleased to instil into our minds the just principles of our duty to Him and to our fellow creatures; to regulate and guide all our actions by his Holy Spirit; to avert from all mankind the evils of war, pestilence, and famine; and to bless and protect us in the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty."

The 18th, the clergy of the city published an elegant and pathetic address, recommending that the day appointed by the governor," should be set apart and kept holy to the Lord, not merely as a day of thanksgiving, for that, in all appearance, it

* The pious observance of this day, by an almost total cessation of business and by the churches being universally filled with the people pouring forth the effusions of their gratitude for the cessation of the dreadful scourge, exceeded that of any other day of thanksgiving I have ever known.

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had pleased him, of his infinite mercy, to stay the rage of the malignant disorder, (when we had well nigh said, 'hath God forgot to be gracious?')-but also as a day of solemn humiliation and prayer; joined with the confession of our manifold sins, and of our neglect and abuse of his former mercies; together with sincere resolutions of future amendment and obedience to his holy will and laws; without which our prayers, praises, and thanksgivings will be in vain."

The 26th, the assistant committee passed several very judicious and salutary resolves, requiring their members in their several districts through the city and liberties, immediately to inspect the condition of all taverns, boarding houses, and other buildings in which the late contagious disorder was known to have been; to notify the owners or tenants, to have them purified and cleansed; to report the names of such as should refuse compliance, and also make report of every house shut up, im which any person was known to have lately sickened or died. They cautioned the vendue masters not to sell, and the public not to buy, any clothes or bedding belonging to persons lately deceased, until they had ascertained that the same had been sufficiently purified and aired.

I have not judged it necessary to enter into a minute detail of the business of the Committee from day to day. It would afford little gratification to the reader. It would be, for several weeks, little more than a melancholy history of fifteen, twenty, thirty, forty and fifty applications daily, for coffins and carts to bury the dead, who had none to perform that last office for them or numerous applications for the removal of the sick to Bushhill. There was little variety. The present day was as dreary as the past-and the prospect of the approaching one was equally gloomy. This was the state of things for a long time. But at length brighter prospects dawned. The disorder decreased in violence. The number of the sick diminished. New cases became rare. The spirits of the citizens revivedand the tide of migration was once more turned. A visible alteration took place in the state of affairs in the city. Our friends returned in crowds. Every hour, long-absent and welcome faces appeared-and in many instances, those of persons, whom public fame had buried for weeks past. The stores, so long closed, are now (Nov. 30,) nearly all opened again. Many of the country merchants, bolder than others, are daily ven

turing into their old place of supply. Market street is as full of wagons as usual. The custom-house, for weeks nearly deserted by our mercantile people, is thronged with citizens entering their vessels and goods. The streets, too long the abode of gloom and despair, have assumed the bustle suited to the season. Our wharves are filled with vessels loading and unloading their respective cargoes. And, in fine, as every thing, in the early stage of the disorder, seemed calculated to add to the general consternation; so now, on the contrary, every circumstance has a tendency to revive the courage and hopes of our citizens. But we have to lament, that the same spirit of exaggeration and lying, that prevailed at a former period, and was the grand cause of the harsh measures adopted by our sister states, has not ceased to operate; for at the present moment, when the danger is entirely done away, the credulous, of our own citizens still absent, and of the country people, are still alarmed with frightful rumours, of the disorder raging with as much violence as ever; of numbers carried off, a few hours after their return; and of new cases daily occurring. To what design to attribute these shameful tales, I know not. Were they to be regarded, in a spirit of resentment, one would be inclined to charge them to some secret, interested views of their authors, intent, if possible, to injure our city. But I will not allow myself to consider them in this point of light—and will even suppose they arise from a proneness to terrific narration, natural to some men. But they should consider, that we are in the situation of the frogs in the fable-while those tales, which make the hair of the country people stand on end, are sport to the fabricators, they are death to us. And I here assert, and defy contradiction, that of the whole number of our fugitive citizens, who have already returned, amounting to some thousands, not above two persons are dead-and these owe their fate to the most shameful neglect of airing and cleansing their houses, notwithstanding the various cautions published by the Committee. If people will venture into houses in which infected air has been pent up for weeks together, without any purification, we cannot be surprised at the consequences, however fatal they may be. But let not the catastrophe of a few incautious persons operate to bring discredit on a city containing above seventy thousand people.

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