National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-04-11
THE BENGAL FAMINE.
FACTS. FIGURES AND SCENES.


q, the correspondent Of the London Times deals
with the famine as follows: -sT-r---rr~T
OF the four districts north Of the Ganges-Ss-
run, Chumpsrun, Tirhoot and part of Bhagul-
pore-Sarun has always been considered the least
exposed to distress.
1t is wedged In between the Gogra and the
Gunduk rivers, and the principal portion Off Is
washed BY the Gauges also, at Its county town Of
Chupra, the three great streams meeting Little
below that station. Thus the problem Of trans
port there ought to be comparatively easy.
Moreover, the spring crop has been and Is more
promising there than In the withered rice tracts
to the north Yet one Of the officials whose duty
1t IL daily to that the 80 600 90 900 starving
people already on the road are relieved, and who
is daily in the villages and among the people,
writes TO me thus: i- u 81 -....s- -. ..--
1.-THE fields are literally burned up, and the
people are coming on the roads in thousands
The higher osstes are coming on, too, very much.
There is no rain, the sky is bright and ceor, and
prices are gradually creeping higher. The peopley
are cutting the standing crop, and giving it to
their bullocks. An old man, eighty years Of age,
told me the other day that he never saw such
gloomy prospect. Things are really becoming Sc
rious. Am very much afraid, despite the exer-
lions Of Government that ten per cent. Of the
population Will die Of starvation before October
NEXT"
Sarun is the most thIckly-peopled part Of Be-
har containing more than 2ooo, ooo, or 77s to the
square mile. Yet, on the 18th, Sir r. Temple
considered 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 at once provided for to 900. Since that date
5000 maunds eighty pounds) of grain have been
sent to Chupra every day.
Ramnuggur is spoken Of as the post Of danger
for the young civilian who is to save the people
there till the next crop. Sir R. Temple found the
state Of the people to be Every bad, !" and he ex-
poets TO have to feed 400 Of them In the worst
times. But Chumparun causes less anxiety than
Tlrhoot, because relief was provided for in time
by the planters themselves. So early as Novem-
Der, when my kilograms to you began to be
gloomy, they formed q cooperative association
for the import Of food, to DO sold cheaply when
the crisis came. These planters not only doing
their duty to their own district, but are helping
Tirtoot.
One Of my correspondents describes the state Of
the country from Mudhobunee. The crops were
burned up everywhere, save in few patches on
the banks Of the rivers where they were stunted.
Those long and wide-stretching ssnd-banks in the
Ganges, Gunduk and Bsgmuttee, which in ordi- |
nary seasons afford food to large population, |
were bare. When the last rain como the peasants |
hsstensd to SOW peas and mIllet, believing that |
the worst was past and expecting to secure extra
ordinary returns as we'll as to save the little |
spring crop LEFT. Alas, It was IN vain; the rain
has not made o weeks difference to the people |
Fifty per cent OF them must sooner or later come
on the relief works, according TO the oicial esti
mate, and 1t is feared that the number Of "close
upon 1000, 900 OF people" in North Tirhoot alone
may be exceeded. Contracts have been made for |
the transport Of 1900 tons week into the north
east corner Of Tirhoot alone.
Writing on this day week, and passing hastily |
through the country, my correspondent saw no !
distress which he could call Severe" but the |
signs Of coming wretohedness are unmistakable. |
Men, women and pigs grubbing together for roots |
In the fields; the violent robbery Of houses and |
stores Of grain, till the welltodo Zsmlndars trem-
BILE for their boards, and even their lives, like |
Hstto Of the legend; frequent nres where grain |
is supposed to be hid; mothers deserving their in
fants or offering to sell them emaciated people |
on the roads, and unfortunate beggars, who went |
90 far as two occasions 10 growl ct Sir Richard
Temple when taking his camp breakfast; sban- |
doned babies fed with arrow-root Rajpoots, and |
even lazy Brahmins, driven to the roads people !
Of all ages and both sexes crowdinR TO the works
But all are provided for. My correspondent |
writes: |
"I believe that the only people who will suffer
severely will be the poor little babies and some
ew individuals whose pride and prejudice will |
prevent them from seeking assistance, and whose |
isolated cases II may be impossible to ascertain
Every effort is being, and will be, made in their
behalf have just been visiting q nursery es- |
tsblished by the "socadar" of this village, where
there are now six sucking infants who are fed |
five or six times day with srrah-root and milk |
Such poor, miserable little parings OF humanity
never saw before. But since they have been taken
into the nursery they have thriyen wonderfully |
Search is being made for others in like circum- |
stances" |
admit that there are other stories. One local |
journal tells Of o man who was offering his SOD,
infant had died Of hunger, while he himself was
working on the roads. Another declares that the |
people are so ravenous as not to take time to cook
the rice which they have earned.
The Daily Netos correspondent at Durbungah, |
under date Of February %, writes thus:
1t is no easy thing to write coherently with the
moan of miserable starvelings constantly in ones
ears. Whenever looked up from the paper there |
stood sQustted before me outside the open door |
Of the tent some half dozen forlorn, hollow-eyed
emsciated women, begging for food to keep them |
from starving. II called for the ohuprsssie to |
''moys them on"-for to work within sight or |
hearing Of them was imposcible-theJ went pa
tiently away with the dull resignation of fstalts
But no sooner were they gone than Others came. !
Lean mothers came and laid down little children,
that lay prone on the grass as II they were dead,
for they were too far gone In starvation to stand
their wasted little legs, and prayed for Q NOR.
sci Of food TO save their little ones Wretched old
women, shriveled and starved almost out Of human
ssmbiance, tottered over the grass to fall pres
trate outside the tent and pray for relief, while
their gray hairs trailsd among the dust. The air
was full OF the dull monotonous howl In which |
relief is craved, as o marsh ct eventime echoes |
with the croaking Of frogs.