The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1876-08-30
THE CHOLERA,
Awful Devastation of a Village Population
in India.

Awful Devastation of a Village Population
In India.
The Bombay Gazette describes as fol-
lows calamity which has fallen on a
village in India through the ravages OF
cholera: One OF the dark spots in In
dian village life is the periodical vista
tion of some epidemic, which enters al
most every hovel and carries off one or
more of the occupants. The villagers
may have been living happily together,
their minds perple1ed about nothing
more serious than the state of their
crops, their cattle, or the ordinary gos-
sip of their little community, when sud
denly the destroyer appears, and the
scene is instantaneously changed from
peacefulness into terror and confusion.
A sad instance of this fact has occurred
in this presidency within the last few
days.
Where there was once thriving,
pleasant little village situated on the sea
shore, there is now deserted collection
of huts. Not human sound is to be
heard in the place from morn till night.
Most Of tho inhabitants are dead, the
victims of a terribly sudden invasion OF
cholera, and the survivors have left
everything in their huts and fed to the
adjoining mountains. It is one of the
most alarming, and We might almost soy
awful, visitations which we know of in
the history of any village in this presi-
dency. Golwood, the place we are re-
ferring to, is midway between Bombay
and Surat, and on the Bombay, Baroda
and Central India railway. Being close
to the sea, the officers of the company
have hitherto looked upon it as kind
of sanatorium, as it possessed many of
the advantages enjoyed by Teethul and
Bulsar, the recognized sanatoria OF Gu
zerat. Here the guards of the goods
trains used to change, and many OF them
had their residences near the station.
Altogether, the population of Golwood
could not be more than 200. Last week
Cholera, which is now preying around
Ahmedabad, suddenly entered the vii
lage, and slew victims right and left.
On July 4th., the first day of its
appearance, no fswer than fifty-seven
people out of the small population died;
twenty more died on the sixth; and
when we had our last advices from Col
wood, there were eighteen new cases, OF
which three-fourths were hopeless. The
few survivors and every poor wretch
who could move have fled to the ada
cent hills, where they are now huddled
together, and struggling to exist on
such food as they can find in that barren
Flocality.
Such was the terror and helplessness
of the people when the outbreak oc-
Cured, that they did not bury their
dead, and bodies lay rotting in the
streets for two whole days, during which
the stencil was abominable. No reason
for the outbreak has been assigned, and
the fate of Golwood furnishes one more
instance of the mysterious movements
of cholera. The misery of the people
was aggravated by the fact that there
was no doctor at hand. A MIR. 81. B.
Wharton, permanent way inspector on
the B. r. and @. I. line, has house
close to the village, and when the cpl
demic appeared the people ran to him
for help. He was the only European
in thestation, and they naturally thought
the sahib might be able to help them.
He happened to have small supply Of
cholera mixture aad chlorodyne, but it
was soon exhausted among so many ap.
plicants, and MIR. Wharton could do
nothing but listen helplessly while tales
of death were being told him on every
side by panic stricken people. Mr..
Wharton says that the cholera was the
most virulent he had ever seen in the
course of a long experience. He saw
people die within thirty minutes from
the moment of attack. The village was
filed with lamentations, and natives
rushed wildly hither and tLither. Many
people died in the streets; while run
ming away they were seized with the
pangs of the disease and dropped on the
spot and soon expired.