The Weekly Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, O. [Ohio]) 1861-1???, 1866-10-26
Correspondence Of The Lon lon Times

try--'rhe IubabitunGs E'crishing by
ThOuNHudN-Ninu ESuodred Dead
Bat usOrc.
Correspondence OF the Lon lon Times.
CALCUTTA Thursday, August l6 1866.
There are sights TO DO witnessed in Cal
cuta which would lead the stranger to be-
lieVe that the city was pershing OF famine
and peStilence. Since the famine has been
allowed to attain such hdcous proportions
in the rural districts it is iuundatins the
capital. All who can crawl from the inte.
rior, from the afflicted subdivision of Jc-
hauabad, in the rich country of Hooshly,
and the misery of what was once the flour.
ishing indigo district of Nuddca, "a we'll as
frola the more wretched Midnaporo and
distant Orrissa, flock to the charities of Cal
cuta. They would receive food at their
homes, but they hear that they will get
more in Calcutta, and clothes as well, and
so at the present moment no less than 2G0
famine stricken wretches day seek the
wRnochuttUrS or Benealee feeding houses
OF the native quarter OF Calcutta
So late rs the 9th of July last tho Bengal
Government n second time refused to on
courage the formation of a public relief
committee, and soon retired again to the
hills. But the city was being 80 crowded
with paulers, pestience was 80 imminent
that the Municipal Commissioner, Mr.. Stu
art llogg, and one or two merchants organ
lied committee aud on Monday last q
public meeting of all classes was held in
tho Town Hail. to raise subscriptions.
Judges, merchants, bnrrsters, chaplains aud
zemindars urged the claims OF the starving,
and euogi2ed the charity of the native gem
temen, who had already done so much,
with an eloquence hardly required, but
quite justified. Official reports were read,
giving statistics which completed to date,
| show that at % places II 475 poor are daily
fed in addition TO the sick in the hospitals,
and as this number is increasing by about
250 day, it may be said that 10000 starve.
lings are now subsisting on charity daily in
Calcutta. A sum of gl50, 600 is required to
grapple with the misery and of this, within
four days of the meeting being held, more
than one-hall has been subscribed.
The most important work the new com.
mit:ee have to do is to organize a system
of reiet. The natives, hitherto have done
as much evil as good by feeding all who
apply Unfortunately, so that the many
professional beggars and rascals of the
great city and the vicinity too often exclude
the deserving, and by giving the food al
different times, so that bands of scoundrels
have been in the habit of wandering from
reliefstation to relef-statior, in the same
day Recently, thirty-two weak, famine
stricken wretches were trampled to death
in the rush of these lusty idlers for food.
The public committee has arranged that
tickets shall be given only to the deserving,
that none but ticket-holders shall he fed,
and that all must be fed at one hour through
out the city. None will be allowed shelter
from tie rain and cold night air, which kills
so many, in the public sheds, constructed
to accommodate 10000, and in The pauper
camp outside the city, except those who
have tickets. AS many poor as can be in
d@ced to go will be sent back to their homes
to be relieved there, aud the Influx will be
arrested by establishing relief outposts at
such places az 0obabaria, the ferry on the
llooghly, by which hundreds flock FROM
MidnapOre aud Orissa.
A relief agent was sent there. and this is
his tale: On lQnding from the boat at
sunrise, the first object that he saw was
ian elderly woman il CHASTITY state Of
emaciatOn, lying hopelessly doubled up
on the wet ground at the roadside, where
she had apparently passed the night. This
was in the midst of crowded bazaar"
Further on lay another woman aud child in
the same state Near them lay th3 ghost
like hgure OF a man worn TO the hone, naked
and stiff, lying in puddle. About to pass
it by as corpse, the agent discovered one
spark Of life still left found that there was
no doctor nearer than at llowrath, several
miles away, and had all these cases re.
moved into a hut. The native Police In
spector and his men looked on with stolid
Indifference. While sago vas being pre-
pared for the poor wretchos who We're too
far gone to eat rice, the man died, and
from another part of the road woman be-
gan that piercing, shrill Oriental wall for
her lost boy Of eight. who had just breathed
his last. 1t is so common for eight or ten
to die daily il, the streets of this village
that no one takes notice.
You will have more vivid idea Of the
state Of the poor in Calcutta than even The
fact that 10000 are daily fed by charity.
when | say that the number of pauper
bodies buried at one ghaut alone rose (rom
50-at which it stood last year-to 329 in
the first nine days in this month. On III"
10Th there were 2T23 native male and te-
male patients ia the different hospitals OF
Caleatta, of whom 957 were Indoor, against