The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1877-03-08


"He's never married, but he's found
some relations as had children, anc
taken 'em right in, and given 'em home
and schooled 'em and there amt better
hammered children in all the place-rea
little gentlemen.
"They talk about bad blood dom
know-seems to me we're pretty mucl
all alike, for he says to this day that i
Miss Nanny had given him up, he'd "a
| gone to the Evil One. So you see it al
comes bach to the longing we have to b,
thought well OF, the worst of Us, dom
itW -
A District Containing Thirty MilliOn
| -. s~S OF People Afflicted. Eo,
| London TimesI
The Indian famine threatens to b.
even more severe than the most gloomy
accounts had led us to suppose. AS thu
public will have seen from our Calcutt,
correspondence, the area of the distress il
officially stated to be 54, 900 square miles
i'll Bombay alone, and 81 700 in Madras
The population Of the afflicted districts
in the one Presidency is nearly 5000, 900
and in the other nearly 100000. II
these figures spoke of distress in Italy
or France they would fill every mind
with an appalling sense Of, horror. We
all know Italy and France; their great
sights are almost as familiar to us az
those of our own country !; their history
dovetails in thousand places into that
of England their people, their religion,
their political aims are akin to ours The
dullest imagination, therefore, could
picture in homely colors thehorrors of a
calamity in which twenty-seven millions
Of people would be liable to die of hun
ger If not kept by q colossal system of
outdoor relief But India is far away,
and the natives remain mysteries to us,
Notwithstanding incessant description.
Their society, their feelings. their family
life, and their religious Instincts are al
most as strange as if they lived inanother
planet. We are likewise apt to think
that in India the forces of nature are I'M
controllable by agencies which are ser
viceable in the milder West There must,
we say, be such drought and such floods
as we never knew; there must be great
famine, and submersions, and pestilences;
there must be vast loss of lite every few
years, as in a country periodically SUBJ
ject to tremendous earthquakes. These
risks enter into the. daily thoughts of
every native, making him hold by ex-
istence with light grasp. Life, we are
apt to say, must be cheap among hordes
who in hundreds of thousands, or even
millions, at time may be swept away by
a tidal wave, or by the famine which fol-
lows the want OF little rain.
The best way to get rid of these
paralyzing ideas is to read such descrip-
ton as Mr.. Monier Williams gives in an
other column. A journey through the
famine-stricken districts has enabled him
to state some facts which will call forth
the quick sympathy of the English peo-
pie. Along the Great Indian Peninsula
Madras and South Indian Railways. and
in the outlying districts, he saw vast
tracts of arid waste. Halffamished cat
tie were eating "what could only in
mockery be called herbage." Most of
them, it is to be feared, will die. and the
animals that survive will be so enfeebled
asto be unfit either to yield milk or to
drag pillow. Such a calamity would be
very costly, even in Europe, and in India,
whe re draught horses are unknown, and
the cow is often the mainstay of a family,
it signifies the absolute ruin of whole
villages. Yet the loss of the cattle is lit
tie more than the mere fringe of suffer-
ing, Mr.. Monier Williams gives pa
thetic description of the poor people, and
the meekness with which they bear pri-
walton. On visiting Madras he found
the pier and the shore for at least mile
covered with bags of grain, piled in some
cases to the height of fifteen or twenty
feet. Round these supplies of food were
grouped thousands of hungry creatures
who had come many miles to pick up
meal. They were "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 their hardset aspect of
misery. They were miserable, half
emaciated creatures" We fear
that such a crowd of Europeans would
have unceremoniously seized the stores
of rice; yet, though the bags were
guarded only by few men armed with
canes, the hungry natives made no at
tack. They picked up the grains of rice
which had dropped through holes in the
sacks and we're mixed with the sand.
Some only went 80 far as to make secret
attempts to enlarge those holes, so as to
increase the leakage. Such meekness is
characteristic of the people. During the
great famine of ITO, when ten millions
Of Bengalees were swept away in few
the calamity was borne with
which seemed like apathy; and.
The natives of Southern India are. in
that respect, like those of the northern
provinces. Hence, while no people in
the world are more easily ruled, no peo-
pie so lack the power of self-help. But
Tor the istless acceptance of the worst
niseries in the land Of fate, India would,
ages ago, have been fertilized by sys-
tem of irrigation, and saved almost from
he possibility of famine. The natives
ire one of the most improvident as well
Is helpless races on earth. When rich.
ice or cotton crops brings them store of
ilver, a large part of it usually goes to
pay off the village money-lender, who,
I necessity, is also one of the greatest
curses of Indian existence; and most of
he remainder may be spent in a single
east to celebrate the marriage of
laughter. Few of the peasants accumu-
atestores of food, and, even after boun-
iful harvest, many must go to the
for the means of buying
eed-grain. Meanwhile the increase of
numbers is so rapid that nowhere else,
perhaps, can we see so good an example |
It what political economists imply by the |
endency of population to outstrip the
means of subsistence. Still we must |
axe the natives as we find them. Our
government is their earthly providence,
nd they rely on its ministering Offices |
With submission scarcely comprehend
lie to the vigorous selfwilled races of
europe. 1t has accustomed them to ex-
ect that it will shield them from the |
1orst consequences of famine, Just as the |
Id dynasties habituated them TO the
act that on the coming of famine they |
aust die. We can not escape from re-
possibilities imposed by the morality of |
civilization.
LOUISVILLE Co1ier-Jounol: Last
light Jinks gave boy an old pistol and |
summer coat to tie a billy-poat to the