Page:A hairdresser's experience in high life.djvu/47

Rh but, for fear of frightening the boarders, it was kept quiet. I roomed in the same cottage, and heard a great stir during the night, but did not think anything of it. At five o'clock I was awoke by the chambermaid, who told me a man named Allen, from Cincinnati, was dead. I dressed myself as quickly as possible, and went down to Texas, where I found the man dead indeed, of cholera in its severest form. A moment after word was brought of another death, and yet another, and another. There were five deaths in all during the first twelve hours.

I felt a great deal alarmed, and went to see a lady from Cincinnati, who was there with her mother, Mrs. D., and Mrs. Judge M. They advised me to stay, and said it was dangerous to fly from disease. While we were in conversation, a chamber-maid came running to me and told me the other chamber-maid, whom I had just left about five minutes before, was ill with cholera. I at once went to her assistance.

On entering the room I found her all cramped, and black around the eyes and mouth. I was terribly frightened, but determined to do what I could for her, so I gave her a large dose of laudanum and brandy, put a large plaster of mustard to her chest, feet and hands, and staid with her till I got her into a perspiration; then I left her, went into my own room, and got everything I had ready to put in my trunks. During the short time I was out from her room an old doctor, who was good for nothing but attending on babies, went in and gave her something which acted on her as an emetic. Knowing there was no physician near, and finding the book-keeper and this old man were trying the most desperate experiments, I