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CHAPTER III |
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TURMOIL AND CALM ORDER
"The generalized history of an epoch sadly misrepresents the real individual feelings of the quiet people in back streets and in country towns."—A. N. Whitehead
The late 'forties in America were
marked by war, pestilence and the emigrant rush to the West. The influence of each upon Stephen appears to have been small. His interest in the Mexican War was manifested in a single musical composition, a "quick-step" for military bands celebrating General Taylor's victory at Buena Vista. During the widespread cholera epidemic of 1849, Stephen included a line for the assurance of his mother in a letter to his brother Morrison:1 "Tell Ma she need not trouble herself about the health of Cincinnati as our weather is very healthy/'* Later the city had many cases of cholera, and in the hot month of July 1849 "long funerals blackened all the way."2 Stephen himself suffered from " 'fever and ague, possibly a malarial condition."3 As for the emigrants bound for the California gold fields Stephen heard them singing, as they passed through the city, their own
* "There is not a single case of cholera in Cincinnati."—The Atlasy April 9j i 849. |
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