These reminders of the yellow fever did not shake the spirit of optimism that gripped the city. Rayner Taylor announced that he would be printing "an anthem suitable to the present occasion." Thomas Boylston Adams, son of Vice President John Adams, wrote to his nervous parents in Quincy, Massachusetts, "The idea of danger is dissipated in a moment when we perceive thousands walking in perfect security about their customary business, & no ill consequences ensuing from it." On the very last day of October, a huge white flag was hoisted at Bush Hill that proclaimed: NO MORE SICK PERSONS HERE. The fever was gone, folk around town declared happily. And then, even in defiance of the cold weather and a dusting of snow, several of the recently returned residents developed symptoms of the disease. A silversmith known only as Mr. Brooks reopened his shop on October 31 and was dead of yellow fever on November 3. Others fell ill as well. While these new incidences of yellow fever were few and scattered, they demonstrated clearly that the disease had not been completely wiped out. It still lurked in dark, unclean corners, still clung to dirty sheets and curtains. Once again the carts carried the sick to Bush Hill, and the white flag of victory had to be hauled down. The committee issued a public warning, telling recent arrivals to clean their homes thoroughly, burn gunpowder to purify the air, dump lime down their privies, and whitewash every room. The reemergence of the deadly disease did not stop people from returning to the city. It did, however, leave a lingering sense of helplessness. Well into December, individuals were still succumbing to the fever, and Thomas Jefferson was worrying over which houses were safe to enter. "Yellow fever," he predicted, "will discourage the growth of great cities in the nation." —An American Plague, Jim Murphy Based on the passage and what you have learned in the lesson, write three to five sentences describing the central ideas that people wanted the plague to be over and that the disease was not yet gone.