Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1861-05-09
Letter from India.

60 Mouth --Dfnnnor of life of the
Natives-Improycm
Correspondence ofthe Belmont Chronicle. o, =.
For more than q, year there has been
great scarcity Of rain in Northern India, and
this having cut off the supply Of nearly all /
the crops Of the cold season, we are now suf-
fering from g hard times" such as people in
America neversee. We always have suffer
ing in India, as the great majority of the |
people are very poor, but when the slightest
scarcity begins to make itself felt on the |
market, the amount OF suffering is too fear |
full to be called by SO mild name as hard
times. In fact, we are now suffering all the
horrors of famine. Up here on the noun
tains there are none actually starving, but
on the plains below hundreds hare already
died from starvation. The accounts which
reach us from the mostreliable soureesr repre-
sent a state of things almost Incredible A
| friend writes to me from Biuoner saying
that he is a member of a committee to su-
4 perintend the distribution of food to the poor,
and that it takes him an hour each day to
feed all who come As soon as the hungry
crowd see the rice and cakes they cry like
children, and struggle so to get their share
, that native soldiers have to be present to
) preserve order. Another gentleman writes
, to me from Roorkee that about one thousand
persons are fed there daily Some are SO
/ exhausted when they reach the place that
! they die after receiving the food. Thou.
a sands upon thousands have been employed
a on public works, and none are fed who are
4 able to work. Many come up here for work
!, y and few to beg. Of these l have seer
3 some who were reduced to mere skeletons BY
e hunger alone. There is something frightfu
q about famine, and it brings more suffering
# in its train than had ever imagined before
i | have lately been making some inquire
,s among the natives to find out how they cal
n live in these hard times with such low wage
ts as they receive, and found system OF liv
~ ing From hand to mouth" such rs improvi
.v dent Americans never practice. A c0Oli
: common laborer) receives about six cent
u per day for his work. Without taking hi
q family into the account, it becomes difficul
ts question to show how he is to support him
ar self on such sum, when all kinds of pre-
re visions are selling at three times their usut
Vi price. At present all live ON kind of coars
: flour, somewhat like the unboted -four froI
as American mills. Two pounds of this al
required for laboring man each day-on
w for breakfast and one for supper. Durn
Eel the past month this -four has sold for 80 ct
he per bound, and now it is rising still highe
n. The natives cannot thus satisfy their hunge
hel even though they spend all their wages f
he the plainest kind Of food. Yet they see
We cheerful so long as they can get anythin
and if they cannot get two meals q day thu
,e. try to get along with one. Hundreds of far
1t. lilies even up here on the mountains are no
re- living on stinted allowances, and expect
IRE do so for four months to come r.l ,.fi
he The great mass of the Hindoos live in
I've more destitute condition than the Americ,
Indians in their most savage state. They
ms half-naked, and sleep under trees or in al
ds shelter which they may chance to find.
an common cuolie does not spend twenty-h
ow cents o year for clothing l have know
er. twenty Of them to live in one little hut, Ju
the large enough to afford them sleeping rool
esi- And even those natives OF a more respc'
be able class, who get ten and twelve cents
adel day, live in most wretched style. Th
: houses are uniformly ten feet square. a
, be this is ample room for all the furniture a
hen other goods which they ever own. l KIN
ons one married man who lived in such roo
Dis and he found it so large that he actua
ON rented one-hof of Il 10 another tamiy.
heir for common coolies, they ask for no M
ess- room and no better quarters than Belmt
| by farmer assigns to his hogs.
,old 1t will be difficult to effect much impro
feat ment among the natives in their manner
the living, simply because they dread anyth
like change. have urged Some Of then
ses. build chilnneys to their huts, hut not a II
AVE will hear to such thing. If lido IL for tn
,lish they will not object, but they will not
ion what their fathers never did. 1t is ne,
ties fifty years since the English first came to
Is in port Of India and yet the natives h
scarcely picked up single improyem
this from them. They live in the same kin,
,ect- houses, eat the same kind of food, worl
di- the same clumsy way, and follow the S,
hern stupid habits which their fathers did I
war turies ago. The only effectual way Of
7hen proving their condition is to get them
orts, verted to Christianity. As soon as q na
then becomes Christian, he begins to imi
eme the English, while SO long as he renal
,rth. Hindoo he carefully avoids anything
In such an imitation. Yet even after they
O up come Christians this improvement mus
on slow. Their character has become SO b
,e of warped by their habits that it will perl
acri- take centuries to restore it.
But Its j. M. THoBuR