The Petroleum Centre Daily Record

The Great Affliction of Memphis,

The Memphis Appeal of Saturday says:

It is with heartfelt sorrow that we announce to-day that the fever knows no appreciable abatement, and that it is gradually encircling the city, taking with it many of our prominent citizens. Our heart grows heavy and our eyes dim as we look back upon the dreadful work of the pestilence, and we cry in anguish of soul, "How long O Lord, how long?" Hundreds of our poor people have paid the debt of nature, and a fearful tithing to the pestilence, and yet it is not stayed, but moves with resistless force, taking from us the lovely, the brave, the generous and the useful. Every night the death roll is called, and every night reveals a list all too long, bearing the names of those we loved to honor, of those to whom we looked as brothers, bound in the common effort of making a great city and earning for Memphis a name to be proud of among the cities of the land. Priests, ministers and laymen; the babe just born; the suckling at the breast, the "wee thing" toddling in its first effort; our school children; our budding flowers, the loveliest of their sex; the mother, the father, the brother, the friend and partner, and men stand in awe, asking, "When will it end?"

Good Samaritans are working, physicians exhaust their most scientific skill, aids pour in upon us from those abroad whom God in his mercy exempts from the scourge, and all to little purpose. The victims of the plague increase in numbers. Surely, if God wills it we have had enough. Our cup of sorrow, of trial and of tribulation is brimfull and running over. For thirteen years we have known nothing but excitement and trouble. Death has many times laid his heavy hand upon us, and destruction has been about us on every side. The prey of revolution, of war, of oppression, of panic and disease, we cry with a loud voice and almost in despair, "Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician for the hearts so ruthlessly torn in Memphis? Is there no future for our stricken city? Is there no hope out of the present blinding darkness?"