OCR Text |
Show STEPHEN GIRARD'S HEROISM. The example of eminent men in the cause of humanity cannot too frequently be cited if we would see their great deeds emulated. The fearful epidemic, yellow fever, prevailed in Philadelphia in 1792. All who could, fled. The horrors of the plague, as described by Defoe in his narrative of London, were realized in this American city. Friends, and even members of the same family, abandoned each other on the approach of danger. The poor were dragged off to Bush Hill Hospital, where, under panic and mal-practice [malpractice], few ever recovered. New York passed a legislative act to arrest and imprison any one, sick or well, male or female, coming from Philadelphia or suspected of so coming. Massachusetts passed a similar rigid law. In the midst of this terrible scourge it was announced that Stephen Girard, the wealthiest merchant of Philadelphia, had taken charge of Bush Hill Hospital, whence no one ever returned, and was engaged in shrouding the dying and interring the dead. He built a new house in the vicinity of the hospital and rented a barn to accommodate the patients who then crowded Bush Hill for care. And though Girard had been declared insane and reported dead, he still lived and kept well, and was soon after found on Fifth street in a large house, in which he installed sixty orphan children found in the streets, which proved to be the foundation of the Philadelphia orphan asylum. - Ramsdell's Washington Republic |