"The Kansas City Star" (Missouri) Monday, September 20, 1897 GAMBLED WITH DEATH. The yellow fever epidemic in the South is a reminder of the terrible scourge that devastated that section, particularly along the Mississippi, in the fall of 1879. Hundreds died daily in New Orleans, Shreveport, Vicksburg and Memphis and, before the fever subsided with the advent of severe cold weather, the aggregate of victims amounted to many thousands. Two Kansas City physicians achieved fame and honors during that awful carnival of death. One was Dr. W. D. GENTRY, now in charge of the Montezuma hot springs, N.M. He went all through the scourged district and voluntarily attended to hundreds of cases. The other was Dr. R. R. HUNTER, then only recently graduated, who promptly responded to the call for physicians and went to Memphis when the epidemic was at its worst and stayed there till the end of the awful visitation. A pathetic case was that of a young Kansas City telegrapher named Charles M. CARR. It was just nineteen years ago this week when, after finishing his day's work in the Western Union main office here, he heard a statement coming in on the Associated Press report saying that there was a great scarcity of telegraphers in the stricken region, many having left and others having fallen at their posts of duty. At Vicksburg it is said there was only one operator on duty and he was working nineteen hours out of twenty-four. One hundred and fifty dollars per month and expenses were offered to volunteers. CARR was about 35, a mild, blue-eyed, fair-haired fellow, with a streak of recklessness in his composition. "I guess I'll go down there," he said to some companions in front of the telegraph office that evening. "That salary," he added, "is twice as much as I'm getting here and when I come back I'll have money to throw at the birds." Then he invited his listeners to a saloon nearby where before leaving, they shook dice for the drinks. In three throws, CARR made five aces which inspired him with courage, and he observed that it was an omen of good luck and that he was not afraid now to even gamble with death. "Good bye, boys," he said, "if I lose, come down some day to where I am buried and plant a flower on my grave." The next morning's train to St. Louis carried CARR and when he got there he received instructions to report at Vicksburg, as the only telegrapher that was left there would be apt to give out at any moment, and the city would be wholly without communication with the outside world, railway trains having ceased running. CARR took passage on a boat and was dropped off at Vicksburg. The operator in charge had been seized with the pestilence only two hours before CARR's arrival, but undismayed, CARR went to work at once and sent and received messages by the score, indulging occasionally in yellow fever witticisms over the wire with the boys in the St. Louis office. His meals were sent to him and he slept in the office. He put in about eighteen hours a day at the wire, with hardly a let-up. At the end of the third day, along about midnight, with a faltering hand he said to St. Louis: "Guess I'm at the end of my rope; the yellow devil has me at last. I feel like -------------" and there the sentence abruptly broke off, and the rest of that night Vicksburg was called in vain. Another volunteer reported there the next day and, in the press report received that night, occurred this paragraph: "There were nineteen deaths to-day, among them C. M. CARR, a telegrapher from Kansas City, who came here recently. He was found dead in the office, evidently having fallen from his chair while sending a message and suffered the most agonizing convulsions." One of CARR's Kansas City friends visited Vicksburg a few years later. He went over to the cemetery where were buried the victims of the saffron scourge. On the crest of a hill were graves marked only by pine boards. Near a magnolia tree he finally found his friend's last resting place, marked with only this inscription: "C.M. CARR of Kansas City." Poor CARR had gambled with death and lost! ====================================================== (I have no connection with these families but I'd appreciate knowing if you found this posting helpful.) johnobrien@kc.rr.com ======================================================