The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-10-06
FOREIGN NEWS.
LATEST BY STEAMSHIP PERSIA"
THE FAMINE IN INDIA.

AuL FAMINE In ANO1hs
Great Distress throughout the Country
The Inhabitants Perishing by Thou
sands-0OO Dead Bodies Picked UP One
Morning Mt BRlasOre.
Correspondence Of the london Times.
CALCUTTA, August 16 There are sighte TO be
witnessed in Calcutta which would lead the stranger
TO believe that the was perishlng OF famine and
pestlence. Snce the famine has been allowed TO
attain such hldtous proportions IN the rural districts,
II Is inundatiDg the capital. .
All who can crawl from the interior from the
afflicted SUBDIVISION of Jehanabad, IN tine rich
once tue fOurs6ing INDIGO district OF Nuddea, as
well as from the more wIetched MdDapore and ols-
tant 0rssa focE 10 the charities OF Calcutta. They
hear that they will ge more IN Calcutta, and clothes
as well and SO at the present moment no less than
two hundred and fifty famine stricken wretches
day seek the uRaochutturS or Bengaee feeding.
houses Of the native quarter OF Calcutta.
So late as the 9th of July last he Bengal Govern
ment seconu time refused to encourage the forma-
ton OF public re LET committee ana soon retired
crowded with Iaupers, pesllence was so imminent,
that the Municlpal Commissioner, MIR. stuart Hogg,
and one or two merchants, organized committee,
wassheu IN the Town Hall to ralse subscriptions.
judges, merchants, barrsters, chaplains, and
zemindars urged The claims OF the starving, and
eulOnzed the charity of the native gentlemen, who
had already done so much, with an eloquence
hardly required but quite justified.
Official reports were read, giving statistics which,
completed 10 date, show that at ~ places 40 poor
daily fed IN addition to the SICK IN tne hospitals
it may be said that 20 600 starvengs are now sub.
sIsting on charity daily in Calcutta. sum OF
fl5O 600 required TO grapple with tue misery and
OF this within tour days of the meeting being heid,
MOI than one-half has been subscribed.
1ne most important work the new Committee
have 10 do is to organize system of relef The
have hitherto done as much evil as good by
feeding all who apply ndIscnminately, so that the
many professional beggars and rascals OF the greas
city and the vicinity too often exclude the deserving
and by giving the food a. different F times me 81 50 1hat
dering from reeI station to rele station IN the same
day. Recently thlrty-two weak, famine stricken
Wrecbes tramped to death in the rush OF these
lusty Idlers tor food.
Tie public committee has arranged that tickets
shall be given only the deserving that none but
ticket holders shall ue led and that all must be fed
at one hour throughout the city None will be
allowed shelter from the rain and cold night air
which kills SO many in the public sheds constructed
to accommodate 10000, and III the paupsr camp out
side the c ty, except those who have tickets. AS
many poor can be induced to go will be sent
back to their homes TO be relieved there, and influx
will be arrested by establishing reiei oqtposts at
such Iaces as Oollabara, the ferry on the HJoRhy,
Orissa
relief agent was sent there, and this is his tae
On LANDING tIom the ooat at SUNRISE the first object
he sa was ian elderly woman IN CHASTITY state OF
emaclation, lying hopelessy doubled up on the wet
ground at the roadside where she had apparently
passed the night This was III the midst oil
crowded bazaar" Further on lay another wo nan
and child the same state. Near them lay the
ghosthke figure OF a man worn to the bone, naked
and stiff, lying puddle. About to pass 1t by as
corpse, the agent discovered one spark OF life still
left, found that there no doctor nearer than at
Howrah, several miles away and had all these cases
removed into nut
The naive Ponce Inspector and his men looked
on with stolld indifference. While sago was beng
prepared Tor the poor wretches VINO were TOO Iar
part OF the road woman began that pierclnP
shrll Oriental wall for her boy OF eight, who had
lust breahed his last 1t is common lor eight or
ten to ole daily the streets of this village that no
one takes notice, You will nave more vivid idea
of The state Of the poor Calcutta than even the
TACT that 600 daily fed by charity when say
that the number OF pauper bodies buried et AZ one
year-to 329 in the first nine days OF this month.
on the 10th there were 2723 native male and femae
patients in the different hospitals OF Calcutta, OF
whom Ss7 were indoor, against 1880 on the same
date last year, OF whom only 3O6 were indoor
Now, If this IS the case IN Cacu'ta, Wnlcn mas no
famine or scarcity OF It's own, what must Oe the state
OF things IN OIissar One OF me Journals mas ad-
dressed series questions to the senior Missionary
of CuttacS winch does not suffer more than Poore,
a. d very much less than Ba asore. To a question
a. 10 the action of Government, he repies:- The
early utterances or the Board OF Revenue furnished
melancholy evidence that the depth and extent OF
tine calamity wholly unappreciated ANY
renresentatlons as to the calamity being compare
uyely sight or confined within narrow limits are
wholly contrary TO iact." 1--WE were surprised as
weeks al d months passed and no movement was
originated by the proper authorities
TO the question whether relief penetrates INTO tine
interior from che station ne says 1t does not to the
extent that is desIabe," although all the officials
| and non-otic'as work with praseworthy energy.
Where there relief centres the entlreiy des tute
car9d for but the larpe and lmportant cIass VINO
ae not paupers yet cannot buy rice at three pounds
| Iour pounds, and five pounds q SMILING, are neg
lected. The price OF Government nce should pc so
low as to meet their case but this authority tells us
It ought TO be sold at SIX pound instead OF five
| pounds shilling, and its dearness was cause OF
dispute between the official and non-ohic1al mem
beIs OF the committee This dearness he terms "the
| principal defect IN the Government relief" The
mortality from famine and cholera he describes as of
| 'fnghtiul magnitude" as "much greater than has
| generally been supposed . 49,
And there are still -four long dark months before
| the proylnce Government is making over the
| many orphans to the missionaries care. This is
| said OF Cuttack but am to d by a high othciai,
| who has lust returned from Balasore where he
assisted the Relief Committee, that language would
fail TO describe the state oil things there few weeks
| ago Think of nine hundred dead bodies being
picked up In the streets OF Baasore IN one morning
Yet this happened, he assured me- hqii the trIth
there will never be reported. The last return from
Baasore shows 7O3 deaths IN that one little station
| in the week ending July Il and 1t you treble that
| number for the manv who become the FOOD OF the
acka and the vulture in the lonely jungle or ditch
Won will not go bevond the sad truth 1t is omnous
| that the Board of Revenue has ceased to report
| deaths.