The Columbia Democrat. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1837-1850, 1840-02-22
News by the Rails.
SHOCKING TAMINE.
Sad Condition Of BNtish Ladia-5OO, ,Ol
People StoePt OF.

S"I''O St0'Pt W.
British India is an empire as large as Eu-
rope, exclusive of Russia, with popuia-
ton, including tributary States, of more
than 5O,00O,00O. Over this empire and
people sway was exercised wholly Bri-
ush while it is affirmed that ignorance.
poverty, crime and disaGection pervail
there, to distressing and alarming ex-
tent.
II has been estimated that the famine of
1887 and 1893: in The Upper Province Of
Bengal; swept off more than 500, 900 peo-
pie The famnes of the year 1899, vi.
sited the Northern Provinces Of Bombay
and Madras.
The Asiatic Journal for August, 1888,
states that "2O0, 600 were scanily fed daily
by Government and private individuals in
| the north west provinces yet this is but a
faint palliative. The people are dying like
dogs-mothers throwing their children at
night into the Jumna-disease destroying
numbers whom famine has spared-dogs
and iackaIs actually devouring bodies in
which life was not extinct" At GwalioI
"hydrophobia was as cholera-iamine
Jreadml-horses, asses, bunaloes, every
lhing that has died natural death, eaten BY
the natives" AiAgra "the police pick uq
l5O bodies daily"
On the I4ih Of April, 1888, $4,000 pin.
ing wretches, men, women and children
we're led by the bound al Agra; and be
tween the lst and 9Th of March, 7l,52S
inirm and sighiless creatures were relieved
in a similar manner. So great were the
ravages of death, that the air for miles wa
tainted with The cfiuyia from the purifying
carcases of men and cattle, and the river:
of the Jumna and the Ganges were chok
ed up and poisoned by The dead bodie
thrown into their channels. The wate
and fish Of these rivers were rejected as IN
J fit for use, and man kept constantly EN-
-, ployed in pushing the accumulated bodie
j down the torrents. The mortality was 3
l the rate Of len thousand month destru
? ton Of life which If il had continued, ,woul
i have swept of the entire population in les
. than year
i A still more dreadful picture is given
g a letter from Calcutta, under date Of tn
I. 10Th of april, which says ;-"Snce I'll
despatch of the overland mail over the Be
y, GiACe, WNlcu lelL DOWOdy az lhe ClOsS
q last month public attention in this quartz
II has been engrcssed by the accounts whic
: daily reach the capital Of the horrid rayag
g famine in the provinces to the west az
IL north west. tits impossible TO compu
al the numbers who die in their tedious pr
D. gress from the desoate districts to d
oi towns where food is procurable. We he
n almost daily Of mothers deserving the
OF children on the highway infants crav
m ing around the granaries to pick up I
er grains Of rice accidenilly scattered duri
w the process of distribution at the doors
's' she roads being lined with dead bodies
ea prey TO the yuture and jackal-of {
IL courses Of small rivers actually obstruct
a- blythe masses of dead bodies thrown the
al in, by those who are employed to clear I
highways-of the European inhabitants
ia' the large towns Of Aga, Cawnpore, a.
m being compelled 70 abandon their event
'e' drive from The impossibhity Of encounter
A. the efiuyia from the putrid corpses
he round"
ne eA1zIz-zEzglEl
sw Gen. Alexander Anderson, Of Knox,
nj been elected To succaed JndSe White