“The plague to fear the most… here it is!”
(The woman’s sash reads “Marianne the cursed,” and given the tombstones, this seems like a gesture toward the costs of French colonialism. In 1897 there was news of an outbreak of plague in India, sparking fears that it would make an appearance in Europe. The tenth international sanitary conference was held in Venice that same year, devoted to discussion of bubonic plague.)
(Le Triboulet, Paris, 1897)
Sic Transit Pestilentia 