A NEWSPAPER-CUTTING.
_EXTRACT FROM THE “FAYFIELD CHRONICLE.”_
_Our readers will have followed with painful interest, the accounts we
have from time to time published of the terrible epidemic which has,
during the last two months, carried off most of the inhabitants of the
little fishing-harbour adjoining the village of Elveston. The last
survivors, numbering twenty-three only, out of a population which, three
short months ago, exceeded one hundred and twenty, were removed on
Wednesday last, under the authority of the Local Board, and safely
lodged in the County Hospital: and the place is now veritably ‘a city of
the dead,’ without a single human voice to break its silence._
_The rescuing party consisted of six sturdy fellows—fishermen from the
neighbourhood—directed by the resident Physician of the Hospital, who
came over for that purpose, heading a train of hospital-ambulances. The
six men had been selected—from a much larger number who had volunteered
for this peaceful ‘forlorn hope’—for their strength and robust health,
as the expedition was considered to be, even now, when the malady has
expended its chief force, not unattended with danger._
_Every precaution that science could suggest, against the risk of
infection, was adopted: and the sufferers were tenderly carried on
litters, one by one, up the steep hill, and placed in the ambulances
which, each provided with a hospital nurse, were waiting on the level
road. The fifteen miles, to the Hospital, were done at a walking-pace,
as some of the patients were in too prostrate a condition to bear
jolting, and the journey occupied the whole afternoon._
_The twenty-three patients consist of nine men, six women, and eight
children. It has not been found possible to identify them all, as some
of the children—left with no surviving relatives—are infants; and two
men and one woman are not yet able to make rational replies, the
brain-powers being entirely in abeyance. Among a more well-to-do-race,
there would no doubt have been names marked on the clothes; but here no
such evidence is forthcoming._
_Besides the poor fishermen and their families, there were but five
persons to be accounted for: and it was ascertained, beyond a doubt,
that all five are numbered with the dead. It is a melancholy pleasure to
place on record the names of these genuine martyrs—than whom none,
surely, are more worthy to be entered on the glory-roll of England’s
heroes! They are as follows:—_
_The Rev. James Burgess, M.A., and Emma his wife. He was the Curate at
the Harbour, not thirty years old, and had been married only two years.
A written record was found in their house, of the dates of their
deaths._
_Next to theirs we will place the honoured name of Dr. Arthur Forester,
who, on the death of the local physician, nobly faced the imminent peril
of death, rather than leave these poor folk uncared for in their last
extremity. No record of his name, or of the date of his death, was
found: but the corpse was easily identified, although dressed in the
ordinary fisherman’s suit (which he was known to have adopted when he
went down there), by a copy of the New Testament, the gift of his wife,
which was found, placed next his heart, with his hands crossed over it.
It was not thought prudent to remove the body, for burial elsewhere: and
accordingly it was at once committed to the ground, along with four
others found in different houses, with all due reverence. His wife,
whose maiden name was Lady Muriel Orme, had been married to him on the
very morning on which he undertook his self-sacrificing mission._
_Next we record the Rev. Walter Saunders, Wesleyan Minister. His death
is believed to have taken place two or three weeks ago, as the words
‘Died October 5’ were found written on the wall of the room which he is
known to have occupied—the house being shut up, and apparently not
having been entered for some time._
_Last—though not a whit behind the other four in glorious self-denial
and devotion to duty—let us record the name of Father Francis, a young
Jesuit Priest who had been only a few months in the place. He had not
been dead many hours when the exploring party came upon the body, which
was identified, beyond the possibility of doubt, by the dress, and by
the crucifix which was, like the young Doctor’s Testament, clasped
closely to his heart._
_Since reaching the hospital, two of the men and one of the children
have died. Hope is entertained for all the others: though there are two
or three cases where the vital powers seem to be so entirely exhausted
that it is but ‘hoping against hope’ to regard ultimate recovery as even
possible._