Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1866-10-24
THE FAMINE IN INDIA.

Great Distress ThrOughOut th
. COuntry--InhabI Perish
a ing by ThOuSands--NIne Hum
dred Dead Bodies Picked Uu
A correspondent of the London Tine
writing from Calcutta under date of Al
gust 10th, narrates the workings of feaI
, ful famine IN that region as follows: Their
are sights to be witnessed in Calcutt
which would lead the stranger to believ
that the city was perishing of famine an,
, pestllence. Since the famine has beer
allowed to attain such hideous proportion
in the rural districts, it is Inundating til,
capital. All who can crawl from the in
terror, from the afflicted subdivision
Jehanabad, in the rich country of Hoogh
: ly, and the misery of what was once tn,
tourlshing indigo district of Nuddea, Al
well as from the more wretched Midna
pore and distant Orissa, flock to the char
tiles of Calcutta. They would receive
food at their own homes, but they heal
they will get more in Calcutta, and
/ clothes as well, and so, at the present mo
ment, no less than two hundred and fifty
famine-stricken wretches a day seek the
a1nOchutt1ITs, or Bangalee feeding houses oi
the native quarter of Calcutta. So late as
the 9th of July last the Bengal Govern.
ment second time refused to encourage
the formation of a public crelief committee.
But the city was being so crowded with
paupers, a pestilence was so imminent,
that the Municipal Commissioner. Mr.,
Stuart Hogg, and one or two merchants.
organized committee, and on Monday
last public meeting of all classes was
hal6 in fha fHou-,. Ion
! tions. Judges, merchants, barristers
chaplains and zemlndars urged the claims
of the starving, and eulogized the charity
OF the native gentlemen, who had already
done 80 much, with an sloquence hardly
required, but quite justified. Official re-
ports were read, giving statistics which,
completed to date, show that at twenty
two places II ,475 poor are daily fed, in
addition to the sick in the hospitals, and
as this number is increasing by about two
hundred and fifty per day, it may be said
that 10000 staryelings are now subsisting
on charity daily in Calcutta. A sum of
915O, 900 is required to grspple with the
misery, and of this, within four days of
the meeting being held, more than one
half has been subscribed.
The most important work the new com
mittee have TO do is to organize a system
of relief The motives hitherto have done
as much evil as good by feeding all who
apply indiscIiminately, so that the many
professional beggsrs and rascals of the
great city and the vicinity too often sx-
clude the deserving, and by giving she
food at different times, so that bands Of
scoundrels have been in the habit of wan
dering from relief station to relief station
in the. same day. Recently thirty-two
weak, famiue-stricken wretches were
trampled to death in the rush of these
lusty idlers for food. The public COM
mittee has arranged that tickets shall be
given only to the deserving; that none
but ticket holders shall be fed, 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 con-
structed to accommodate 10000, and in
the pauper camp outside the city, except
those who have tickets. AS many poor
as can be induced to go will be sent back
to their homes TO be relieved there, and
influx will be arrested by establishing re-
lief outposts at such places as Oolibaria, |
the ferry on the Hooghly, by which hum
ireds flock from Midnapore and Orissa. |
A relief agent was sent there, and this is |
mis- tale:
''On landing from the boat at sunrise, |
he first object he saw was IAN elderly /
woman in a CHASTITY state of emaciation, /
ying hopelesslY doubled up on the wet
ground at the road side. Where she had
passed the night This was
n the midst of crowded bazaar" Furth-
II on lay another woman and child in the
anne state. Near them lay the ghost-lIke
gure of man worn to the bone, naked (
nd stiff, lying in a puddle. About to
Ass by it as a corpse, the agent discover
d one spark of life still left, found that
here was 40 doctor nearer than Hoyrah. {;
everal miles away, and had all these
ases removed to hut. The native Po-
ce inspector and his men looked on with '
tolid indifference. While sago was being
repaired for the poor wretches who were
DO far gone to eat rice, the man died. !
nd from another part of the road a Wo- S
ian began that piercing, shrill Oriental
all for her boy of eight, who had Just
reathed his last. 1t is so common for !
ght or ten to die daily in the streets of t
lis village that no one takes notice. You
i'll have a more vivid idea of the state Of L
lie poor In Calcutta than even the fact c
1000 are daily fed by charity, when 1 I
y that the number of pauper bodies
lried at one ghaut alone rose from fifty a
at which it stood last year-to 329 in
lie first nine days of this month. On the q
'th there were 2,723 native male and
male patients in the different hospitals a
Calcutta, of whom S87 were indoor, o
,ainst $3.50 on the same date last year, 81
whom only 306 were indoor u
Now if this is the case in Calcutta, Il
nich has no famine or scarcity of its own, a
nat must be the state of things in Orissa? y
lie of the journals has addressed series h
questions to the senior missionary of 81
Ittack, which does not suffer more than 81
'oroe, and very much less than Balasore. 1t
a question as to the action of Govern L
ent he replies: "The early utterances
the Board of Revenue furnished mel
choly evidence that the depth and ex- a
Mt of the calamity were wholly unap- Of
eciated." ANY representations as to N
e calamity being comparatively slight h
confined within narrow limits are el
holly contrary to fact" ave were sur
ised as weeks and months passed and sc
movement was originated by the prop ct
authorities" III
To the question whether relief pens- Is
ates into the interior from the station, W
says it does not 'to the extent that is lie
sirahle,' although all the officials and -,
n-oficials work with praise-worthy en- II
yy. Where there are relief centres the ol
tirely destitute are cared for, but the
ge and important class, who are not
upers, yet cannot buy rice at three
unds, four pounds and FIVE pounds
illing, are neglected. The price of
vernment rice should be so low as to n
,et their case, but this authority tells
it ought to be sold at six pounds in in
ad of five pounds a shilling, and in ON