The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1876-08-10
Devastation of Village in India by
the Cholera.

Inc 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 Indian
village life is the periodical visitation of
some epidemic which enters almost every
howell and carries off one or more of the
occupants. Tie villagers may have been
living happily together, their minds per
picked about nothing more serious than
the state of their crops, their cattle, or the
ordinary gossip Of their little community
when suddenly the destroyer appears, and
the scene simultaneously changes 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
village situated on the sea-shore, there is
now deserted collection Of huts. Not a
human sound is to he heard in the place
from morn till night Most of the inhab-
itants are dead, the Victims of a terribly
sudden invasion Of cholera, and the sur
vivors have left everything in their huts
and fled to the adjoining mountains. 1t is
one of the most alarming and we might al
most say awful visitations which we know
of in the history of any village in this
presidency. Golwood, the place we are
referring to, is midway between Bombay
and Surat, and on the Bombay, Baroda
& Central India railway. Being close
to the sea, the officers of the company
have hitherto looked upon it as kind of
sanitarium, as it possessed many of the
advantages enjoyed by Theethul and Bull.
sar, the recognized sanatoria of Guzerat
Here the guards of the goods trains used
to change. and many of them had their
,A,{s
the population of Golwood could not be
more than 200. Last week cholera,
which is now preying around All.
medabad. suddenly entered the village,
and slew victims right and left. On the 4tll
inst, the first day of its appearance, nc
fewer than fifty seven people out of the
small population died; on the next day
twenty three died; twenty more died on
the 9th; and when we had our last advices
from Golwood there were eighteen new
cases, of which three-fourths were hope.
less. The few survivors and every poor
wretch who could move have fled to the
adjacent hills, where they are now, hud.
died together and struggling to exist on
such food as they can find in that barren
locality. Such was the terror and help.
lessness of the people when the outbreak
OCCuIICu tAlstI CuCy Nlu HOI UuIy CAACA uctNi
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 Col
wood 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 Mr.. H. B. Wharton, permanent way
inspector on the B. B. & G. 1. line, has
a house close to the village, and when the
epidemic appeared the people ran to him
for help. He was the only European in
the station, and they naturally thought the
sahiJ might be able to help them. He
happened to have a small supply of chol-
era mixture and chlorodyne, but it was
soon exhausted among SO many appli-
cants, and Mr.. Wharton could do nothing
but listen helplessly while the tales OF
death were being told him On every side
by panic stricken people. Mr.. Wharton
saw that the cholera was the most viru.
lent he had ever seen in the course of a
long experience. He saw people die with.
in thirty minutes of the moment of attack
The village was filled with lamentations
and natives rushed wildly hither and
thither. Many people died in the streets
while running away they were seized with
the pangs of the disease, and dropped on
the spot and soon expired.