Juniata sentinel. [volume] (Mifflintown, Pa.) 1846-1873, 1866-10-17
S}list'Ijancous 3lcaSmg.
THE GREAT FAMINE IN INDIA.

/ started from Midapore, civil station
about seventy miles southwest Of the cap
ital, on the morning Of the 2Gth of June,
and had hardly proceeded some seven
miles, when commenced the painful sights
which, varying only in intensity, eontinu-
ed till again returned to this place
Rain had fallen heavily during the night,
and the palklmen were trudglng slowly
through the mud, when, little after day
break, saw two bodies under a tree. As
there seemed To be slight motion 10 one,
| alighted, and on going up to it found,
covered under an oil cloth, an old man
slowly dying from hunger. He appeared
as if he had thin piece of transparent
India rubber tightly drawn over his skel-
eton frame, so emaciated had he become
| gave him some beer, and he slowly fal-
tered out his tale Of woe.
He said tha. lie and his companion had
left their homes, after seeing their families
die from the effects Of cholera or famine,
aud had got thus far on their journey to-
ward MIduapore, hoping to get relief
there, when one, struck BY damp and hun
ger, dies on the road under tree, and
the other wakes to fnd his friend j corpse,
and himself, exhausted aud drenched by
the heavy rains that had fallen during the
night, unable to move. The dogs and
jackals feast off the body, while this liv-
ing skeleton but few PAGES off is power
l.ss to prevent them. He faintly bcgs
from the passcrs by, but in vain. Hun
ger is guawing their vitals also. They all
turn deaf ear to his cry. The beer
seemed to revive him. and woa. (; III II
laIiki to get s;:;;;,,sse biscuits, but returned
to find the poor sufferer in q state of coma,
and in few minutes lie was dead. The
half pick ed body of his companion attest
ed his tale l continued my journey,
passing at intervals the dead as they lay
unburied and in every stage of decompo-
stion on the side of the road.
Sometimes I would see cluster togeth
or. In one place there were twenty-five
bodies within the space Of half mile
in another six, close together; all more
or less mangled and torn by jackals, dogs
and vul.ures. Pushing my way through
the jungle and over paddy fields, often
obliged to swim sundry streams swollen
by the late foods, III one of which my
palki was upset, | traversed one hundred
and twenty miles of country, when l
reached the house Of Mr.. Falls. an as
sis:aut in Messrs. Watson 4 Co.'S indigo
concern here. That gentleman informed
me that woman had died by the road
side, and that living child was said to
be at her breast lie sent out his SER
wants, who returned saying that they had
found the corpse and the child, bu. the
mothers arm clasped the other SO tight
that in bending it back, stiff AMI cold, it
broke. They say that the living aud the
dead had been thus linked together foy
two days; at any rate, the poor little in-
fant, exhausted by exposure and want,
died as it was being released.
The above gentleman and myself were
travelling through dense jungle. Miles
away from any human habtation we per-
,eived famished native, of the Sonthal
rite, lying on the grouud, he had thrown
himself down to meet certain death but
. little brandy rekindleg the vital spark. |