The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1866-11-15
The Famine IN India.


Governor Of this State, calling upon
the people to recognize the goodness
Of the Lord of the haryests, and the
Ruler of nations for all our blessings,
1t is difficult for us in the midst Of
peace and plenty to appreciate as fully
as we should the appalling destitution
Of which we have read in some Of the
provinces ofIndia. Surrounded with
great abundance, it is enougt 10 end
thrill Of sympathy through tne
whole community, to hear of the star
walton of one single unfortunate per-
son, but we hardly stop TO think that
across the Oceans there are millions
Of human beings dying Of absolute
starvation and want. The dispatches
and papers from England have given
us some Of the brief facts relative to
the appalling calamity which has be-
fallen British India. AS we gather
the news from our exchanges, the
fearful rasagos Of famine are terrible
beyond the recollection of living men,
and probably equal to any Of the suf
ferings of the race in past history.
The New York Tribune says that
when the famine was at its heighth,
the starving poor crowded into the
streets of Calcutta. and it was estima-
ted that no fewer than 10000 to 25,-
600 starving people were wandering
about the capital. At Mullick's
Chat, where the Bombay merchants
raised fund and distributed food,
there were at one time 7,0O0 furnishing
applicants crowded up. They were
described as placed in order upon an
open space waiting for the distribu-
ton \ 'Dn one side nearly 1000 Hin
docs. each with a leaf platter before
him, were scattered on the wet ground,
hastily partaking Of the scahty dole
they Ireceitcd 4 On tHe. kotlfer side
were thousands of furnishing Mussul-
mans ranged in like manner, and
watching with silent and greedy Gag
erness the meal of their Hindoo
Brethren and counting with bitter
longings the minutes till their turn
should come. Under the shelter OF
the Chat crowded the women, girls
and children. Outside the gates were
hundreds and hundreds who had lost
their chance till the next distribution.
But over all a horrible dead silence.
No chattering or converse, hardly u
sound, excepting when at intervals
some wretch threw up his arms with
an ejaculation to Heaven, wrupg from
him by the unappeasable pangs of
hunger More than this, officials
wrote home descriptions Of meeting
dead bodies in every morning ) ride
bodies lying in the road, with the vii
lage dogs eating them atIeisure. A
Calcutta Journal stated that in Bala-
sore, having population of $4,000,
the deaths amounted to 300 day.
A few days ago a telegram from In
dia announced that half the popula-
ton of Orissa had persisted in the
famine--that is, fully two millions
and half of peoplel An English
journal remarks: 1T is impossible,
inconceivable, incredible that $50
transcendental horror, one so utter
ly beyond all precedent, so utterly
beyond Imagination, should actually
have occurred Y yet the same journal
expresses serious misgivings, that
when the truth shall have been fully
ascertained, it will be found that the
estimate here given Of the desolation
wrought by the famine was not, after
all, greatly exaggerated. 1t 10 thus it
puts the matter. 1.-TWO millions and
a half of people, twice the population
Of Denmark or of Greece, eight Suf-
folks, six Hampshires, five-sixths of
Scotland, dead of hunger. *2l*
Two millions and a half Of men, and
women and babieseour subjects, dead
OF hungerl Why, we are Christia1s,
and if but one woman so dies, move
the whole force of the State to secure
inquiry and relief from a horror
which chills the warm comfort of our
wealth +" Eias .as
In the districts whore the famine
is most serious, the crops have been
an almost total failure for three years.
In 1864 cyclone worked terrible
ravages; in 1865 the crops were worse
than the previous year; and this year
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