Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1867-03-08

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| tai revelry. They were buried, if noble and
wealthy, with some show of ceremony, but
| If of the middle and lower rank, with scarce
any. These either breathed their last in
! the streets or in their own houses where
| the stencil that came from them first made
! discovery of their deaths to the ueighbor-
| hood. 7 When the graveyards were filed,
| deep trenches were dug, and into them the
corpses were thrown piled up in rows ''as
| goods are slowed in a ship, for things
had come to that pass, that mems lives were
no more regarded than the lives of so many
| beasts
For five months was this the state of the
| city In the adjacent country, the poor
! distressed laborers, with their families, with
out either the aid Of physicians or the help
of servants, might be seen 'languishing
on the highways, IN the fields, in their own
houses, and dying rather like cattle than
! human creatures The ripe corn was left
ungathered the cattle were allowed to roam
about at large, and every man lived as if
each day would be his last that is he be-
came as dissolute in manners, as were the
citizens How many perished in tho coun-
| try is not related but in the city, upwards
Of one hundred thousand were swept away,
and thus were the survivors, for the first
| sc populous 4 more awful mode of taking
| the census can scarcely be imagined.
| Take away from this picture all that lends
it horrible picturesque music
| the revelry, the long train Of corpses borne
| to the place Of wholesale burial, preceded
| by the priests with their crucifx, the sudden
| deaths in the midst of smiling corn fields !;
| the ttocks of sheep, goats, and heards OF
| oxen turned loose but leave all of Its hu-
man suffering add to the swift deaths by
pestllence death by the lingering, agonizlng
| process Of starvation the bodies, when
found near the towns, thrown into plague
pits, but more often left to rot by the road
side or In the jungle, where the flesh is de
Voured by jackais, dogs and vultures and
thoa anaagino TO youFeelr, II YOU uaH tiES
fate of the people, not of single city and
the country Immediately surrounding it, but
of territories as large as European king
doms, enduring this accumulation Of hor-
rors, and you will have faint notion OF the
significance Of the words, famine IN
India.
The famine commenced in the month of
April last in Oriass and Cannon coast dis
triets extending along the northeastern side
of the Bay Of Bengal From thence it
spread upwards iuto other districts Of the
Bengal Presidency, and downwards into
Bellary, Salem, Coimbatoye, and North and
South Arcot-districts in the Murdras Pres
idency. In these districts the distress was
only less terrible than in Bengal But even
in them the lower classes were described as
| having "hardly a rag to cover their naked
ness, and hardly any flesh to cover their
| bones - thousands of cattle died for want
Of water, and pasture, while those that sur
! yiyed Tesembled the miserable human be-
| ings IN being mere moving skeletons. In
| Orissa, Gadjum and Mldnapore, the distress
wrought by the famine was felt in all its in
| tensity. In those districts it is supposed
! that the death rate was a thousand day
for many months but the number of those
who thus miserably perished by hunger and
/ disease will never be accurately ascertained.
| Vast numbers fed from the districts, some
/ to fall by the roadside where their unburied
| bones lie bleaching In the scorching sun
mute witnesses to the blessings Of British
rule :; others to arrive in Calcutta, so ema-
ciatsd that they appeared ike skeleton
| frames covered with thin transparent India
rubber. La the City Of Palaces, aud
! other towns where they sought refuge, 1t Is
/ calculated that scventY-fye thousand were
daily fed by public charity, and at least
! double that number, or one hundred and hf-
| ty thousand, by private charity To see
one Of those immense crowds, when the dai-
ly distribution ofrice took place, was most
heart rending spectacle. y one quarter
were thousands Of HindOos, IN another
| thousands Of Mussulmen, and at little
distance, sheltered by the CHANT, were the
women, girls and children.
Scanning the face Of those assembled
thousands, you saw in every one of them
Ef.g .4as4r
ing. vet resigned look OF mortal weakness
or of mortal sickness, which the sight OIL
food suddenly changed into Il hungry, long
ing. devouring look-the kind Of look which
inspires feelings Of pity for even a starving
wild animal but which, when worn By the
| human countenance, is indeseribably painful
to behold Over all was the silence of death
no loud and noisy laughter, as would be tho
case at other times hardly a sound, save a
intervals, when some Iamished wretch threw
UP his arms and uttered a cry Of wild des
pair, wrung from hiS by the gnawing, un
appeasable pangs of hunger At other pla
ces, fearful struggles to get possession of tn
food took place, and many lives were lost il
the sickening scramble The picture w0ull
not be complete did we not add that man.
of the men who received this reIieftled from
their wives and families, leaving them t
fate which they themselves escaped. Thus
the misery wrought by the famine stamped
out the love Of offspring and of home-con
spicuous features in the character Of tn
people Of India, and more especially of th
Hindoes.
Of the women thus deserted by their nat
ural protectors, many touching stories wer
told by eye-wItnesses. For example Z
planter was informed that a woman had diet
by the road side, and that living child wa
at her breast He sent out his servants
; who found the corpse, and the child so tight
Is c}asped in the mothers arms; that il
bending il back, stiff aud cold, it broke Ih
poor httle infant, exhausted by exposur
and want, died as it was being released. An
other case; A woman, with her three youul
children, crawled up to q planter hous
Just as tiflin was being cleared away th
remains Of the curry and rice were carried
out into the veranda and placed before her
Without attempting to cat, she seated tn
three children round the dish, who spcedil.
deyoured Its contents; and, although tn
mother was wasted to a skeleton, mumbIin
her thanks, she turned away, grateful tha
her offspring had been fed, even while sh
herself hungered. Here Is yet another in
stance, still more wonderfully touching in it
forgetfulness Of her self: A little girl am
her mother were seen lying under mang
tree. Both were faint from hunger the
had been trying to keep life together b.
feeding on snais, berries and lizards; bu
weaker day By day, they at last sunk dow
I.