The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-04-21
HORRORS OF STARvATIO,
THE INDIAN FAMINE.

FIGURES CONCERNING THE DISTRICTS SUFFER-
ING FROM THE FAMINE-SCENES TO BE WIT
NEssED-MEANs TAKEN FOR RELIEF.
The correspondent of the London Times
writing from Calcutta under date of Febru-
airy 9th, thus speaks of the famine:
"My next letter." he says. "will probably
be from the heart of the black famine tract
in north Tirhoot. Meanwhile my local cor
respondence and the Eleventh Special Mar
rative of the Bengal government up to the
10th, issued in slightly mutilated form by
late for last mail, show that while, since
Sir r. Temples deputatiOn to Behar, gov
eminent has begun to grapple with the
suffering, the difficulty of doing so
is increasing every day. OF the
four districts north of the Ganges-Sarun.
Bhumparun, Tirhoot and part of Bhsgulpore
-Sarun has always been considered the
least exposed to distress. 1t was wedged in
between the Cora and the Gunduk rivers,
and the principal portion of it is washed by
the Gauges also, at its county town OF
Chupra, the three great streams meeting a
little below that station. Thus the problem
of transport there ought to be COM
paratively easy. Moreover, the spring
crop has been, and il, more promising
there than in the withered rice tracts to the
north. Yet one of the officials whose duty
it is daily to see that the $4,000 or 90 600
lieved, and who is daily in the villages and
among the people, writes to me thus 'The
fields are literally burned up, and the peo-
pie are coming on the roads in thousands
The higher castles are coming on, too, very
much. There is no rain, the sky is bright
and clear. and prices are gradually creeping
higher. The people are cutting the stand
ing crop and giving it TO their bullocks. An
old man, eighty years of age, told me the
other day that he never saw such a
gloomy prospect. Things are really becoming
serious. / am very much afraid despite the
eXertions of government that ten per cent.
of the populaeie-s will die of starvation be-
fore October next" Sarun is the most
thickly-peopled part of Behar, containing
more than 1000 600, or 77S to the. square
mile. Yet, on the 18th, Sir r. Temple con-
sidered its condition to be much less critical
than that of its neighbors, although since
that date he has raised his estimate of
THE NUMBER TO BE PROVIDED FOR
to 100000. Since that date 5000 maunds
eighty pounds) have been sent to Chupra
every day. Going north to Chumparun, we
find the corner between Nepaul and the
Gorockpore district of the northwestern pro-
vince more exposed to suffering, by the con-
fession of the Bengal government, than even
Northeastern Trhoot and North Bhagul-
pore. Ramnugger is spoken OF as the post
of danger for the young civilian who is to
save the people there till the next crop. Sir
Il. Temple found the state of the people TO
| be very bad, and he expects to have to feed
400, 900 of them in the worst times. But
/ Chumparan causes less anxiety than Tirhoot,
| because relief was provided for in time by
the planters themselves. So early as No
vember, when my kilograms to you began
to be gloomy, they formed a cooperative
association for the import of food, to be sold
cheaply when the crisis came. These
planters are not only doing their duty to
1 -.
| My correspondence from the Seatamurhee
aud Mudhobunee subdivision of Tirhoot
shows how terrible the need was there a
week ago, and how theoretically Sir r.
emple is meeting it. In the Is days be-
tween his departure from Patna, on the 26th
OF january, and his return on the 18th of Feb
ruary he travelled 45O miles through country
which Is comparatively roadless, and the
mud tracks of which are now so cut up by
] the relief carts that the drivers often prefer
the fields. Writing on this day week, and
passing hastily through the country, my
correspondent saw no distress which he
could call severe butehe signs of coming
wretchedness are unmistakable. Men, wo-
men and pigs grubbing together for
roots in the fields; the violent rob-
berry of houses and stores OF grain,
till the we'll TODD Zemindars tremble
for their boards, and even their lives, like
Hatto OF the legend; frequent fires where
grain is supposed to be hid; mothers de-
sertinsy their infants or Offering to sell them ;
emaeiaJed people on the roads, and untortu-
nate beggars, who went so far as, on two &C.
casions, 10 growl at Sir Richard Temple
when taking his camp breakfast; abandoned
babies fed with arrow root; Rajpoots, and
even lazy Brahnzins, driven to the roads;
people of ali ages and both sexes crowding
to the works. But all are provided for. MY
correspondent writes: al believe that the
only people VINO will suffer severely will be
h1fa a