Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1877-09-18
The FamInetuI India

GllfOuRn SCreeU OF Une more
wealthy part of the town, it is COM
mon to see at almost every house
a number Of poor people collected
waiting for the daily dole Of food,
and in this way the native COM
munities Of this and other towns
have been doing quietly and unos-
tentatiously a great deal to help
their poorer brethren in the strug-
gle for life.
But from all that | can learn dis
tress is already reaching the class
above the very poor. With these
there are caste difficulties about
getting food at the regular relief
houses, and many are gradually
starving before the pressure be-
comes SO great that they will leave
behind their pride and social preiu-
dices and join the common herd at
the government kitchens. With
regard to the town of Madras the
local committee are now making
inquiries regarding the numbers Of
the better classes who are in want
of relief, and this relief will bead
ministered as far as possible in a
manner consonaht with the feelings
and usages of the classes we wish
to benefit. M
1t is quite certain that the desti-
tuition is very real. Within a stones
throw of my own house there is a
native village tenanted by servants
Of Europeans, small shopkeepers
and others, and for sometime past
my wife has been feeding a few
little starvelings 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 morn:
ing for their food, two or three are
so far gone that they will not be
saved. If we feed all who wanted
help out Of this small village, we
should have hundreds on the list.
AS / write there comes before me
a woman with two children, the
woman in the last stage of exhaus-
ton, one child at the breast, with
the face like a little old man. and
its body a mere skeleton, the other
child a little girl of five years of
age, extremely emaciated and feeble.
With this family are two young
girls, both miserably thin and fam.
ine-stricken, and with their strength
quite spent. They all speak with
voices that are thin, and sounding
as If far away, just as happens in
patients in the last stage OF cholera.
A little warm soup and bread and
milk for the children revives all of
them in a wonderful way, After a
rest they get a meal of curry and
rice, and are sent off in a cart to u
relief camp. Standing at the en-
trance of my house ! can in half
ON hour count hundreds of wretch
ed creatures who have hardly
strength enough left TO drag thoir
weary limbs along. These are the
houseless and homeless wanderers
from distant villages, for whom the
government provides centers of re-
lief; but the people yill not rest
quietly and conserve their energieu.
They drag themselves and their
feeble children gbout, wandering
from camp to camp, uptii tho time
coAes for them to lie down and die.
Deaths iR the street are getting
more frequent. One day last week
| saw q small crowd assembled near
the government house. The peg
pie were gathered round g famine
family, one Of whom, little girl Of
seven, was dying of exhaustion.
Fhe bystapaers were trying to feed
her with milk aug rice, but she
could not swallow. La BqngaiSrs
1 hesg That the people die in the
streets at the rate Of fifteen or
twenty a day, and the police in
Madras are reporting such deaths
rs common. There comes time
in the Gogrse Of every famine when
the people affected by the scarcity
can neither exert tbemselyes, nor
bear any climate changes, WITHOUT
great peril to life. Bodies enfeebled
by long pHyatiop aEe very susceptl-
bic to fatigue and weather changes,
The last ten days have been u rainy