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:' — * 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. * PLEASANTLY SITUATED,'