SPECIMEN BRICKS.	281
the reduction caused by flight and by death together, that the popula-
tion was diminished three-fourths, and so remained for a time,
Business stood nearly still, and the streets bore an empty Sunday
aspect.
Here is a pic-	•    „;.	] \    ,, _r      [f    i

ture of Memphis,	"       "'    ^
at that disastrous
time, drawn by
a German tourist
who seems to
have been an eye-
witness of the
scenes which he
describes. It is
from Chapter
VII. of his book,
just published in
Leipzig, * Missis-
sippi-Fahrten, von
Ernst von Hesse-
Wartegg:' —
* PLEASANTLY SITUATED,'
* In August the
yellow - fever h ad
reached its ex-
tremest height.
Daily, hundreds fell
a sacrifice to the
terrible epidemic.
The city was become
a mighty graveyard,
two-thirds of the
population had de-
serted the place, and
only the poor, the
aged and the sick, re-
mained behind, a sure prey for the insidious enemy. The houses were closed:
little lamps burned in front of many—a sign that here death had entered.
Often, several lay dead in a single house; from the windows hong black
crape. The stores were shut up, for their owners were gone away or dead.