The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1877-11-08
THE FAMINE IN INDIA.
Retiering the Starring Peopte-Sad Scenes
of Misery and Death.
FL ocfo nal

l.
Retiering the Starring Peopte-Sad Scenes
of Misery and Death.
From tie Boston Journal
The Rev. LoriE S. Gates, a graduate
of Williams College in the class of 1871,
and engaged as a missionary of the
American Board at Sholapoor, India,
writes in private letter to afriend some
interesting particulars of the awful v1s1-
tation of famine and the work of relief.
He says:
owe are in the midst of the famine
stricken district, and are realizing, as we
never could elsewhere, what a famine is.
All last year we had no ram to speak OF
over large part of India. The crops
failed almost entirely in this region, and
in the country south of us. The people
never think of laying up cent for &C
rainy day Ga dry day.. and when the
crops do not come in time they are COM
PEELED to leave their fields and seek food
they know not where. Grain
is now about six times its value, and this
for poor people is bad; but this is not so
bad as the fact that nobody can get work,
and hence there are no wages. In this
extremity the Government has opened
srelief works. building roads, tanks,
artificial lakes, railroads, ETC., in order
to keep the people at work. Yet, with
all this, there are hundreds dying every
day Of starvation, and will for some
months to come-say till about January.
Then the principal crop of the year will
be ripe, and the people will have food,
provided the rain does not fail.
"There are now people here from
nearly every village within forty miles.
Water has been plenty, owing to the
wisdom of an engineer in building a
large artificial lake. Thousands of these
people are fed here daily, and yet it is
impossible to reach all of the starving
ones. We feed from 800 to 400 persons
in our yard every day. Many of these
are children, unable to work. Parents
have turned off their children to care for
themselves. Husbands have (among the
poor almost invariably turned away
their wives, and mothers are trying to
sell and give away their children. Al
most every day children are brought
here for us to take. One woman came
with child about days old, and said
that if we did not take the child she
would kill it. We took the mother and
child and cared for them as best we
conld, but the mother finally killed the
child by refusing to give it milk, al
though she had plenty of it in her
breast. She had become almost insane
with the thought of supporting the child
in such time as this. A few days ago
little girl, about 3 years old, was found
lying on our verandah. We asked her
where she came from, and she said her
mother brought her in sight of the house
and told her to come here and she would
find a mother; and she has. This shows
how the people are suffering, Ter a
mother parts with her child only rs
last resort. Many persons have come
here with their children and asked
us to keep them for few weeks,
while they went to the relief works, and
it is encouraging to see how the people
trust us now We find about 500 per-
sons in our yard every morning. We
select the most needy and set them one
side, for there are many who try to i'm
pose on us, and who have means of sup
No al, l.
a day, and give with bread to the needy
ones. The Government authorities give
us 100 native loaves of bread day.
These we cut into three pieces each, and
give each child piece, which serves as
plate on which to put the rice. The
loaves are about as large in diameter as
a dinner-plate and little thicker. Many
children are SO wasted away with hunger
that they are actually living skeletons.
Many were so far gone when they came
that they will never recover A few DAYS
ago I found three persons within an
hour in different parts of the fields near
by all speechless and nearly gone with
starvation. There is detachment of
police whose duty it is to pick up the
dead bodies that are found about the
streets. From seventeen to twenty-five
are reported at the police office as picked
up every day. This does not include
the large number who die daily in the
poor-house and hospitals. We are con-
templating building house for orphans.
Many are now on our hands, and we
have no place but carriage or horse
shed to keep them in