The New York herald., 1877-09-14
THE MADRAS FAMINE.

A DREADFUL ACCOUNT OF THE STARVING con-
DITIoN OF THE NATIVES IN THE MADRAS
PRESIDENCY.
[From the London Times Madras letter dated August
All Hndoos are charitable by nature. Most families
have crowds of hungry hangers.on, in the best
of times but with this great dearth the family burdens
have been greatly added to. In going through a
street Of the wealthy part OF the town it
is common to at almost every house q num-
ber OF poor people collected waiting for the
daily dole OF food, and in this way the native
communities Of this and other towns have been doing
quietly and unostentatiously great deal to help ther
poorer brethren in the struggle tor ie But from all
that can learn distress is already reaching the class
above the very poor. With these there caste di
cuties about getting food regular relief houses
and many are gradually starving before the pressure
becomes so great that they will leave be-
kitchens. With regard to the town OF
Madras the local committees are now making inquiries
regarding the numbers of the better classes who are in
want Of relief, and this relief will be administered as
far as possible in manner consonant with the
feelings and usages OF the classes we wish to
benefit 1t Is quite certain that the destituton is
very real. Within q stones throw OF my own
house there is native village tenanted by servants
Of Europeans, small snopkeepers ana others. aud
tor somo time past my vile has been feeding few
little starvengs belonging to this village on bread and
milk. These are not immigrants. but children OF our
local poor and out of a dozen little things who come
every morning Tor their ood two or three so far
gone that they will not be saved. II We fed all who
wanted help out Of this small village we should have
hundreds on the list
SAD PfCTURK
As write there comes before woman with two
children, the woman The last stage OF exhaustion
child At the breast with lace like little wizened
old man, and It's body q mere skeleton, The other
child little girl OF i've years OF age, extremely ema
ciaied and feeble. With this family two young
girs both miserably thin and famine stricken, and
with their strength quite spent They all speak with
that thin, and sounding If far away, just
rs happens IN patients in tho last stage OF cholera
revives all OF them IN wonderful way Alter rest
they get meal OF curry aud rice, and are scnt of
cart to relief camp standing at the entrance gate
of my house, can IN half AN hour count hundreds of
wretched creatures who have hardly strength enough
houseless and homeless wanderers from distant VII
lagos Tor whom the government provides centres OF
serve their energies They drag and their
feeble children about, wanderingifrom camp to camp,
until the time comes fer them TO lie down and die.
DYING IN THE STREETS.
Deaths In the streets getting more frequent One
day last week saw small crowd assembled near TO
Government House. Tho people were gathered around
q iamined fam y one of wnom, little girl OF seven,
was dying of exhaustion The bystanders were trying
10 feed her with milk aud RICE but sho could not swai
low In Bangaore hoar that the people die in the
streets at the rate OF fifteen twenty day and the
police In Madras are reporting such deaths as
every famine when the people affected by the
scarcity can neither exert themselves nor bear
any cnauges Witnout ereat Peri W iiic
Bodies enieebed by long privation are very suscep-
tibe 10 fatigue and weather changes. The last ten
days have been rainy time, and the mort iiity among
the famine camps has been higher than ever Rumors
reach US that the viceroy s coming down imme-
diately from Simla to Bombay and Madras 10 consult
with tho local authorities in regard TO future arrange
ments for the management Of the famine Lord Lyt.
ton will not arrive day too soon. The food supply OF
the people in Madras and Mysore and the threatened
extension Of the famine area In Bombay are matters
OF the highest imperial interest," and should be dis
cussed In the heart of the famine and not IN the
cloud capped Capua Of the Himalnyaa