The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1867-01-09

The Wheat Crop. = t.t
Editors journal:
Once again the g gray goose quill'
is called into requisition, Our town
is unusually quiet, owing to the spec
ial efforts of old Boreas to suspend
navigation. Our pork merchants are
pretty active, and a pretty fair crop
will be cut and sailed during the sea-
son. The corn continues to be de-
liyered according to contract. and
when the river opens again, somebody
will have some work to do in order
to empty the warehouses.
Our County Board have finally re-
ceived the jail--the builders agreeing
to accept loss on the contract price
of 81 900. Perhaps this is as good an
adjustment Of the affair as could we'll
be obtaincd-all things considered.
In the past four years over 100000
have been expended for public i'm
provements in and about our town.
We ought to be thankful, surely, for
small fauors.
The wheat crop is enduring the
freeze finely, and if nothing further
happens hereafter to destroy the crop,
we hope to be able to eat cheaper
bread another year. suv,,tsf
AS nothing specially Interesting has
occurred during the past week, you
will excuse this hasty, .communica .
ton. s.7' 5tf WILLIE BARLOW
Rockport, Ind, Jan.7, 1867
England and America i'm India.
We published some time since. a
full and heart-rending account of the
famine in India. At that time it was
hoped that its ravagesa had been staid,
but a more recent letter in the Lon
don Times from Lahore, in Punjab,
the northwest province of. sHind0os-
tan, says that the terrible life and
death conflict still goes on, its force
but little abated. How many have
been swept away by, famine and its
attendant evils can never be known,
as'the authorities have studiously en-
deavored to hide the facts. as far as
possible, from the public, but it lis
thought that in the one province of
Orissa alone there have died no less
than one million people, or one fifth
Of the entire popElationl In some
parts of India the mortality has been
still greater Several districts have
lost one third of their population by
famine, while all who remained alive
and could get away have emigrated.
The latter class only went from one
field of death to another, there being
no escape for them from a land wholly
given to the destroyer.
No country ever presented a mo. g
woeful spectacle than British India
There is but one bright spot in that
whole vast range of country, and that
is the few and feeble stations of Ameri-
can missionaries. No mission field
ever presented more serious obstacles
in the way Of Christianity and civil
zation-no field upon which so much
labor has been bestowed has yielded
so little frat. 1t is now many years
since Judson established his mission
station in British India, and his la.
bOrs have been abundantly seconded
by self-sacrificing men and women
who have followed in his footsteps,
but it must be admitted that the sue
cess which they have met has not
been at all commensurate with their
efforts. For long time the English
authorities, with few exceptions,
threw the whole weight of the Gov
eminent against them. while Brahmin-
ism. with its caste system, interposed
most serious obstacles in the way of
christian progress. Gradually the re-
ports of the missionaries have been
more cheering, although at the best
they have offered but faint hope for
the ultimate civilization of the Hin
docs.
Between the vices of heathenism,
undermining the whole frame work of
the human system, and the crushing
weight of British despotism, the
present famine being only one Of its
many consequent evils, the Hindoo
race seems doomed to the same fate
that has sealed the Indians of the
West. The people Tho were once the
most lcivilized in the world, the race
which may In fact be called the parent
of civilization, is now the especial
victim of the most civilized nation of
the Old World. Pursuing a policy
which has time and again spread ia
mine over the whole country, and
made India at once a lazar- house and
a charnel house, does not satisfy Eng
lish cruelty. When citizens of the
United States attempted to ameliorate
the condition of those benighted
heathens, it was long and weary years
before they were fully tolerated by
the British authorities This, which
brands England with the letter of
shame, speaks volumes in our favor.
British rule brings misery and desc
iation. The spirit of American civil