The Key West Citizen Newspaper, June 19, 1947, Page 8

n chains from © eight! what I little. more life into the “They ‘moved. quickly. In; hal , hour after a man i ‘ I became arid “exchanged: corals wile , anid Violin ‘bows forturtle''shells,’ At: times I was! me allowed to/work in the carpenter v “It. continued pretty,.fair, .but L fi t hair was beginning ut}, and I was very ner- Vous, Buf. I stood it well ‘and *‘Lwhen. the (first yellow fever case. broke out there in August, 1867, ceptibly weaker than /T'd)been } my {first two years; but little didI’ think” that after the friend, Dr. ith.and his small son both . Smith was' the Post ” Mudd drew a hand across _{his forehead’ ‘and préssed a thumb and forefinger against his eyeballs tightly, as though to rive ay the picture his i ner ess saw so vivid- ly. ay: pS “Dr. Smith died, he. night of and his boy the next day. The pup-|fort commander took me from and‘on my offer to do could for the sick, he put me in charge of the hospital. For : lans—-every- | two days: we had:no deatlis.” We walked from the old. post quarters containing the cell whjch Dr. Mudd was loeked up yen duty periods afnong the sick, and shortly. stood’ be- fore a it. beneath a tree on the parade ground. It bears a tablet: honoring (the service and sacrifices of Dr. Smith ‘who died at «this post of duty aged | 33° yéars.” ‘ “ “A splendid fellow,” Dr. Mudd *| exclaimed; and added, “we sav- ed his wife! It was a hard fight. By the 13th of September the plague was. raging through the fort with unabated fury, The most experienced nurses died within’ @ few. hours; and we couldn’t obtain’ any others to bestow the simplest, attentions required, I. turned nurse .myself, and we made the best use we could of volunteers. from the command, and from among the prisoners. “In one day seven men were ushered into. eternity without one word of kingness or the min- istering angel of religion... . We provided a fourth hospital and that, too, was speedily fill- eq. oi. & 4 ‘he dead?” I asked reverent- ly. was nailed in.a ‘coffi on a ‘boat, rowed half a mile finally ’ fell sick, Dr.| | Ra, ele ‘He nodded “Yes,” thoughttul- ; “The first_of October, in1881 hat was. I hadn’t feared lsease. I had felt, and. I.wra my.: wife, that my lack of “fear! would keep me -from: being ate! tacked. Dr. Whitehurst had tome <. . and he pulled me through, ks to a merciful God! I got ap the 14th of October, fully re- overed trom the dreadful fe except for flesh and: strength.” | “And in recognition: of your icrifice and service—?” © ¥ “They put me back’ in» that little cell beside the sallyport for: two. years more!” , 2 Nobody’ said a word in your. | behalf?” Wf ‘ “Every. officer and soldier of the. decimated Post signed a pe- tition to the Government setting, forth my services . . ..I was never. ambitious of preferment . . it was dispatched to ‘Washington, bug it never reached there!”, “Destroyed?” ; “IT suppose so; nothing demic .. . its cause?” “Yes. A fatal midsma from the standing water, of the moat. Th first case occurred August 18th: . . 1867. . in Company K, Jovated in! the casemates. on the side of the fort directly over ‘unfinishéd moat. The Post ¢om-' Manhdant ordered the company. elas.” removed... An old cloak, soaked: by a tropical storm, hung in the, ighboring room, and mechan< ically, by adhering formites, - the} {disease worked along through whole company. without a skip. “Our hospital supply of beds’ gave out and we were thereafter. ‘compelled to bring the patienté: in on infected’ ones, Then_ the’ laundresses were afflicted all at One time. But the most remark+ able spread of the disease,was on th night of the 16th of September: in Company M, quartered in the: casemates immediately above hospital. “For ‘twenty-nine days the} company had remained wholly: exempt from yellow. fever, owing no doubt to the fact that it lay; entirely behind the bastion whic! with the. prevailing . southe: wind, produced,a downward of: opposing ‘current of air. - But on the morning 8f the 16th a.small} raincloud arose to the south of the fort, coming up rapidly with’ a heavy wind that lasted about: twenty minutes. This blew di- rectly from the hospital and Com: pany L, towards Company, M. | “The night following — every. }man went to bed in his usual’ health; but between 11 and #) o’clock nearly one-half the com-; pany was attacked with the fev- er in its most malignant forny; beginning at the point nearest the! hospital and extending _ thirty; Place REAL Your Refrigeration - on « REAL ICE BASIS ICE: || Thompson Enterprises, Inc. wnt PORE Heelthy end Safe (ICE DIVISION) ‘an enlightened public.” fer of ‘Thoughttully and silently fever: whi trusted destitute. After a. lit as- his: prime withou$ a pity or consolation from (A quo- tation from’ one. of Dr. Mudd’s letters to his wife.) * “T have lived through suffocat- ‘ing heat,” he; continued, “millions of mosquitoes, fleds and even less , Vermin: (rats) that -in- ole island’. . . months broken down and good for noth- ‘The Doeto pt sig) are heavily, and lwent on: .“Pilate, fearing the djs- Bleakurt of. the nultitidle, po idemned our Lord to death. . Isn’t Mine ‘somewhat an analdagous case? In the excitement.and un- fair influehce that ‘prevailed at trial “of ‘the: conspirators’, I could excube much ...'. sorely vexed-at my protracted ex. ile, though: I) fear. it is all human «. . blessed are those*who expect nothing, for they shall not: be. dis- appointed. Poor old’ Archilles! Shot in the heel!” -. . Dr. Mudd. was living again the days of his terrible infliction... : drinking to the dregs. I put a hand on his arm-. . . “But you were released!” The physician straightened his head and his eyes -brightened nt Rave left me almbst bald, | 1993, and almost forgiving ly; and the interrupting, continued: “Sixteen days after President Johnson’ left office” I was back home. Mother had died. }* ‘The farm was in ruins, the sav- ings gone and my family almost while I began to try to piece the strug-'} gle for existence together again, but. there were ‘no’ laborers. to work the land and money was almost unobtainable. My prac- tise asa country doctot was birt‘| poorly regained. I was: néafly’ ; | fifty years old, broken in health, but I kept at it. . think until. . .” x * Dr. Mudd didn’r finish the story. I knew the sequel. In nine days with pneumonia. contracted while visiting the ‘sick of the neighborhood in the nighttime in‘ the middle of winter, he. passed away on the 10th of January, 4 ky oko ® " We traced: again through .the sand-burrs and; prickly .péar. the twisty path fading now ‘in’ the sunset, from the sallyport to the pitiable old wharf; and the Doc- tor boarded in spirit once more the little Army transport for Key West, there to transfer to another boat for Maryland, waving a wistful goodbye to me. at the pier in the then shabby island. town. 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