, 1877-05-11
The Indian Famine.

Mr.. Monier Williams writes from Ma.
dura that at least 15, ,0O0, 900 human be.
ings will have to struggle for existence.
if they are not actually struck down by
famine, or by the disease which famine
brings in its train. OF course this esti.
mate has reference only to the poorest
classes. A sad feature in the
spectacle is the condition of the cattle.
As travelled from one place to another,
often diverging from the neighborhood
of the railways to less frequented out
lying districts, saw hundreds of lean,
half famished kline endeavoring to exc
out doomed existence on what could
only in mockery be called herbage.
When it is remembered that the COW is
the principal source of sustenance to
Hindoos of nearly all castes, and that no
such animal as q cart horse is to be
found in India, all Agricultural labor
depending on the OK, some idea may be
formed of the terrible calamity involved
in a mortality among cattle. Even the
COWS and oxen that survive will be al
most useless. Utterly enfeebled and
emaciated, they will have little power
left either to yield milk or to drag
pillow through soil caked and indurated
by months OF unmitigated sunshine.
But the saddest feature Of all is the con-
dition Of the human inhabitants Of khis
great peninsula. will simply recount
what 1 know; and testify of what I have
seen with my own eyes in the capital Of
this presidency. Only fortnight ago
I saw many thousands Of poor famine
driven creatures from the villages round
Madras collected on the shore and on :
the pier. They were crowding round
the sacks Of rice grain, with which the
sands for at least mile were thickly
covered and almost concealed from view,
the grain bags being often piled up in
mounds to the height of fifteen or twenty
feet. Yet no onslaught was made on the
grain. A few men scattered about
armed with canes, were guarding the
sacks for the merchants Who owned
them, and were sufficient to prevent any
attempt at depreciation, though here and
there I detected surreptitious efforts,
not 80 much to make incisions, as TO
enlarge any happy defects already ap-
parent in the material which enclosed
the coveted food. What generally hap
pened was this: Very few of the grain
bags were so we'll made as to make any
leakage impossible, and sprinklings OF
rice were thus scattered about every
where. The knowledge of this circEm-
stance was the cause of the vast con-
course of miserable, half-starved, emaci-
ated creatures who had walked many
miles to the spot. Men and women,
old and young, even cripples, mothers
with infants on their hips, and naked
children-all more or less pitiable in
their leanness and in their hard-set as
pect of misery-were earnestly engaged
in cleaning up every grain that escaped
from the sacks on the pier and on the
shore. Many were provided with coarse
sleeves, by means of which few rice
grains were, with infinite pains, sepa-
rated from bushels of sand. n
The ROMAN SENTINEL. Pom
peii- was destroyed there were very
many buried in the ruins of it who were
afterward found in very different situar
tions. There were some found VINO
were in the streets, as if they had been
attempting to make their escape. There
were some found in deep vaults, asn
they had gone there for security. There
were some found in lofty chambers
But where did they find the Roman sen
tinel? They found him standing at the
city gate, with his hands still grasping
the war weapon, where he had been
placed by his captain. And there,
willie the heavens threatened HIM;
there, while the earth shook beneath
him; there, while the lava stream rolled
he had stood at his post; and there, al ,
ter thousand years he was found.